Monday, February 27, 2012

The Landing Expert Principles

I am a practicing career coach and have noticed that in most cases, I guide my clients through 10 certain deeply held beliefs of mine that have evolved over my years of practice. I decided to call the concepts the Landing Expert Principles—naming them after my Web site, www.landingexpert.com

  • Job seekers should have their résumés written by a recommended, professional résumé writer known to produce excellent résumés. In today’s economy, just plain “very good” résumés don’t make the cut.
  • Based on the theories of Albert Mehrabian, professor emeritus of psychology at UCLA, an interviewer judges a candidate 55% on visual appearance, 38% on voice, and 7% on words.
  • The interview is a competition. The winner is the one who outshines other candidates, who knows the rules of the game, and who knows how to deploy all the tools.
  • The hiring decision is made during the interview, based on the impression the candidate leaves behind, which in turn is based primarily on the interviewer’s gut feelings. Unfortunately, such decision making is certainly not pure science.
  • The interviewer knows the candidate is there to sell himself, but the interviewer is not ready to buy everything the candidate wants to sell—except when two conditions occur:
  • The candidate recites facts and gives evidence about career background and ability to do the job.
  • The candidate uses adjectives or other kinds of self-descriptions in sentences that are in the third person—that is, the otherwise self-descriptions were said by others.
  • Interviewing is like dancing: it cannot be learned from a book but only from practice. The more one practices, the better one becomes at it.
  • Interviews are counterintuitive: they’re not about the candidate; they’re about the candidate’s skills and experience as they relate to ability to solve the interviewer’s problems.
  • The interviewer is listening, but his hearing is selective: that is, when the candidate talks about himself, the interviewer barely hears it; when the candidate talks about how he can solve the company’s problems, the interviewer becomes more interested and attentive and is thinking, “Louder, louder!”
  • Before you answer each question during an interview, ask yourself in turn the question “So what?” which will force you to recount significant and meaningful examples pertinent to the questions.
  • To convey the most credibility as a candidate, provide facts via success stories from your professional past. Often use the expression for example and then (1) briefly describe a job situation needing resolution, (2) list the specific actions you took to resolve the situation, and (3) end by pointing out the resulting benefits to your team or employer.
  • Posted via email from The Landing Expert

    Saturday, February 11, 2012

    Do You Want a Job or the Right Job?

    As a career coach, I talk mostly with two kinds of people: employed or in transition to another job. Sadly, people in both groups have one thing in common: most of them are unhappy. For those in transition, the unhappiness is self-explanatory, but why such a high level of unhappiness for those who are lucky to have an employer?

    Several recent articles cover this subject. People who still work spend longer hours at it, and they face higher levels of stress. There’s no question that employee satisfaction is at an all-time low and that it has an impact on people’s health as well as relationships with family and friends.

    A 2010 study found that in the United States, 55% of employees were not satisfied with their jobs! This is the highest level of dissatisfaction ever recorded, and the trend toward such dissatisfaction has strengthened steadily in the past 25 years. That means that unhappiness in the workplace is not directly related to the current economic downturn.

    Unhappiness at work is not isolated. Unfortunately, it affects not only the unhappy people themselves but also those surrounding them. A recent Swedish study found a direct link between one’s relationship with one’s manager and the impact that that relationship has on one’s health: men who had toxic supervisors increased their risk of heart attack by 50%. A different study revealed that people of average height who felt unhappy at work added as much as five pounds to their weight.

    A different, long-term study dealing with the impact of unhappiness at work confirmed that there is a strong correlation between one’s job satisfaction and one’s life satisfaction. Clearly, our thoughts, our emotions, and our performance on the job affect our behaviors away from the job and thus are affecting our loved ones.

    What a job seeker can learn from all this is that it is of utmost importance to find out about a company’s culture, about the work conditions there, and as much as possible about the person one will report to before accepting the job. The sad—but practical—part is that even if one gets a great job at a great company with a great boss, in today’s economy things change so fast, and many of those changes are totally out of the control of the employee. So, what does one need so that work life harmonizes relationships and doesn’t destroy them? Luck—lots of it.

    Posted via email from The Landing Expert

    Friday, February 10, 2012

    Four Ways Media Can Breathe Life Into a Resume

    The following article was written by Kyle Lagunas

    In an attempt to circumvent the keyword-laden resume game, job seekers are taking a more creative approach to captivating recruiters. Rather than dropping the resume altogether, the trend seems to be a breakaway from over-automation and a return to the heart of what makes a good hire. Laurie Barkman of The Resumator explains, "We've been told for a long time, "This is how you do recruiting, and here's what matters,' but organizations are now more interested in interactions that help to determine a good fit. And more nimble organizations are looking at people beyond the resume."

    Sounds nice, but what's working and what's not? There are certain guidelines that you should always follow, regardless of mode of delivery, but are candidates guidelines that you should always following up mistakes with aesthetics? Resumes and the multimedia techniques being used are essentially marketing tools--and the function they serve isn't changing. As Barkman states, "The question you have to ask yourself is, "Can multimedia enhance that message?’ “If the answer is yes, there are four channels a candidate can tap into to accomplish this:

    ñAdding a Face and Voice with Video. By replacing a cover letter with a quick video pitch, job seekers can showcase skills and abilities lost in translation in a traditional resume. As Bruce Hurwitz of Hurwitz Strategic Staffing says, "Video can increase my confidence in a candidate's ability to successfully interview--Is she professional? Is she articulate?--or eliminate a candidate from consideration. “Of course, time is money, and candidates need to give recruiters a reason to keep watching. My advice: personality is great, but don't get too cute. Balance is key.

    ñBringing Flat Resumes to Life with Infographics. Breaking out of the traditional resume template isn't easy without a degree in design. But presenting a recruiter with a more visually stimulating overview of experience and qualifications can go a long way in setting a candidate apart. Thankfully, it doesn't take an Adobe Illustrator savant to turn a boring old resume into an interesting infographic. Not only are these easy to create, but they're easy to share across multiple channels.

    ñProviding Insights into Culture Fit via Social Media Profiles. It's no secret that recruiters investigate candidates' social media profiles to obtain a more rounded picture of the individual. Job seekers are responding to this shift in recruiting practices by beefing up their networks, expanding their professional profiles and adding recommendations on LinkedIn, driving conversations and connecting with thought leaders on Twitter, and cleaning up their Facebook profiles.

    ñShowing Off on Personal Blogs. Blogs are an excellent platform for candidates to showcase their hobbies, writing and communication skills, and general interests. Think they're just for marketing candidates? Think again. Even a meat cutter at Whole Foods can run a successful butcher blog to establish expertise and share experience with an avid audience. And candidates for and candidates for artistic positions can showcase their portfolio of work.

    Multimedia: Here to Stay?

    The basic function of a resume isn't going anywhere. What's changing is how that function is executed. "We're not leaving behind the resume, “says Steven Savage, a technical project manager at Mobclix and a writer and speaker on geeky jobs, "but we're using it as a trigger point for more. “To that end, many college campuses are taking it upon themselves to give the next wave of workers a competitive advantage in the job market of tomorrow.

    What successes have you had in using media to find work or place a candidate? What challenges do you think employers are faced with when reviewing a new form of application? Will media continue to impact the job market, or will it simply be swallowed up as one more way to stand out from the crowd?

    About the Author: Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice, an online resource for reviews of talent management systems and applicant tracking software. Kyle reports on trends and best practices in HR and recruiting software, offering fresh insights into the ho-hum of people processes. For further reading, you can find this article in full on his HR blog.

    Posted via email from The Landing Expert

    Sunday, February 5, 2012

    The Cost and Benefits of Career Coaching

    So, what is career coaching? Many people nowadays use the term career coaching, but they’re not sure they understand its meaning or whether they’re using it in the right context. Any kind of coaching consists of the practice of supporting an individual or a group that has the objective of reaching a predetermined goal or goals. Coaching is a very broad term encompassing a variety of types such as business, career, conflict, executive, personal life, religion, and sports coaching.

    Career coaching revolves around job-related issues. Many people use the expressions career coaching, career counseling, and career consulting interchangeably but without really understanding the differences between those terms. In fact, among the three terms there is a fair amount of overlap.

    A career coach asks lots of questions to diagnose issues that need attention, focuses primarily on the client’s agenda, and works with the client on the skills needed to achieve the objectives. The process is brief and commonly accomplished via short sessions and sometimes even via phone or Skype.

    A career counselor provides answers and information. It is logic that drives this process, which uses standardized assessment tools. Counselors typically meet with clients face-to-face at regular, predetermined time intervals.

    A career consultant resolves problems by meeting frequently with clients at the consultant’s workplace, and the engagement is project based.

    Even within career coaching there are subspecialties. Some coaches specialize in helping clients learn how to apply job search tools; others cover aspects of clients’ marketing of themselves; and still others teach social media presence and the use of LinkedIn, Twitter, and the like. I myself am a career coach specializing in preparing clients for interviews. About 70% of my work consists of performing mock interviews with clients, but a goodly portion also helps clients with myriad other career-coaching issues.

    For some job seekers, the cost of career coaching can be a significant barrier. Career coaching is of course a service—one that is purchased the way similar professional services are. For instance, most people see a doctor when they’re sick; or they hire a lawyer when they need legal counseling; or they have their tax filing prepared by an accounting professional if they don’t know how to do it.

    Career coaching is a profession similar to the professions of plumbers, electricians, accountants, and so on. All of those professionals invest in their careers in order to support themselves, and so, they rightfully expect to be compensated financially by clients or customers.

    In my opinion, the cost of career coaching should be made explicit at the outset; and the most expedient way to announce it is via the coach’s Web site. The cost should be made transparent because clients have the right to know up front what they’ll end up paying for such a service. I’d be very suspicious if the cost is not spelled out. What is there to hide? What other surprises can a client expect? Frankly, job seekers should not engage career coaches without checking out whether such coaches have been recommended by others. And I’d question the quality of a coach’s services if no testimonials or LinkedIn recommendations are available.

    In researching career-coaching costs, I’ve found it interesting that sessions vary in length from 45 minutes to 50 minutes to 60 minutes and that charges vary, too—from, say, $75 to more than $200 per session. My advice is that a prospective client look not at cost per session but at total cost and then compare that with how the client would profit from the service.

    Above all, what would the likely outcome be if such a service is not used? By working with a career coach, clients speed up the job search process, work with a pro, get unbiased feedback, stay on track, and, by the end, will have learned how to negotiate a better compensation package that would cover the cost of the career coaching—often severalfold!

    Posted via email from The Landing Expert