Being proactive about your job search

Recruiting good people is difficult. It's not much better than chance. Indeed the correlation between successful interview and job performance is 0.3. Those of you who understand coefficients of correlation will admit at least it's positive but we have a long way to go to ensure that every hire is going to a successful employee.

 

So here's the thing. Most people don't use the obvious route. I estimate that if you apply to a job advertisement there is a 10% chance of being successful provided you meet the specification. Most people who apply don't meet the specification and are therefore wasting their time.  I estimate an application via a jobs board has a 5% chance and a cold call or unsolicited email less than a 2% chance.

 

How about we look at this problem from the perspective of the recruiter. I have a role to fill. My first step would be to appoint someone who has already worked for me. Failing that why not ask someone I trust for a recommendation.

 

The proactive job search takes this principle of getting a recommendation and approaching the point of purchase (the person with the power to hire you), using a recommendation from a mutual contact.  Imagine a spreadsheet. On the left hand side are target organisations. Those with the propensity to hire people with your skill set and from your perspective, those organisations who have the culture and characteristics you know you do well in. Secondly, using LinkedIn and Google, you identify the point of purchase. Lastly, you try to find out as much as you can about them, where they have worked previously, their interests, etc. Turning to the right hand side of your spreadsheet, you list your network. Remember - your network has 4 sources. These are people you have worked with, former clients, suppliers and professional peers. You will need a network of at least 250 people. The trick is to make a connection between someone who knows you and the point of purchase. It may be necessary to make several connections before reaching the end point of the point of purchase.

 

The key is to use recommendations in your network to build contacts in your target organisations. There will not always be opportunities. However, each introduction allows you to build a network. This approach works best when you approach networking from the perspective of adding value to those in your network.  If you have a healthy balance sheet of people who owe you a favour, introductions are easy to achieve. This approach to job seeking allows you to target organisations and get introductions via a mutual contact.  Clearly there is no guarantee you will get a job, but working on the premise that we like to hire people we can trust, or hire people whose recommendations we trust, it is a better approach than applying to advertisements.

 

Think about it.

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Your Next Job Is Not the One You Should be Worrying About

Successful career management lies in good career planning. You need to know where you want to be five or 10 years from now, and you need to know it today. Are you looking to move within your organisation, your sector or the profession? What changes do you expect over the next few years that will affect your role and organisation?

You are responsible for your career progress and success – if you know what you want then you can target the job and company.

The problem with recruiters is that they hire for the skills they want, they don’t want to take the chance that you will be able to develop those skills, to grow into the job. If you want to move on and up you have to build your skill base; you have to develop those aspirational competencies that will allow you to build your career. What skills, knowledge, qualifications and expertise does the very best candidate need?

However good a sales person you are, if you want to be sales manager your lack of management experience is going to hamper you. Think about the best sales managers you know, their skills and strengths, then do a critical self-assessment. How do you measure up? What do you need to do in terms of self-investment in order to grow, develop and achieve your career goals?

Look at the gaps between your current level of competence and your aspirational career goals – what do you have to be good at that you can’t currently lay claim to? This should drive your job search. Your next role should be one that helps you to reduce those gaps in your skills base. The secret is to use your network to help you find that role.

The best place to get experience is the place where you already work. Have a serious career conversation with your current employer. If they know what you are trying to achieve perhaps they can help you get there. They already know you and your work so they have an interest in helping you grow and improve. A company with good career management policies and procedures will invest in staff as a means of employee engagement and retention.

It has to be admitted though that your choices and aspirations may not dovetail with those of your current manager or organisation. So you may have to think about moving laterally or taking a secondment. Think outside the box.

To target other companies you will need to identify and target the point of purchase carefully. If they are to hire you even though you are not a 100% fit with their job specification you will need really good recommendations and endorsements from contacts they trust. If you come with an exceptional recommendation the hiring manager will take that second look at your CV.

Consider what you offer as a competitive advantage. What do other professionals in your field offer? Can you differentiate yourself by offering something extra, different or unique? Then cross-reference your competitive advantage with the ideal candidate for your ideal job. It is the fact that you are an appreciating asset that enhances your employability.

Make sure that you develop and are known for your exceptional capabilities so that if the chance arises a prospective employer will take a chance on you. To do that you need endorsements. Think seriously about who you know and the influence they wield - who has the potential to impact on your career? Build a strategy to strengthen your relationship with those people. Build your profile, ensure you are visible to those who matter, and ally yourself with people who can help you. It’s about being well connected and making sure your contribution is noticed.

Don’t let your career just happen and don’t wait to be noticed. Take a proactive, targeted approach to maximise your potential. You are responsible for your own future.

Looking the part

Dress Code: top ten tips

Dress appropriately for the organisation and it's culture. Accountants and lawyers like suits where as it's chinos for creative ad agencies. Check out the organisation, observe what people are wearing prior to showing up for an interview. Under no circumstance wear Bart Simpson socks.
They say cleanliness is next to godliness so be god like. No dirty nails, no greasy hair.
Wear something new, it will make you feel better and you'll perform better at the interview.
Clean your shoes before every interview, make sure they don't need repairing.
Does your dress reflect the brand you are trying present.  Are you trying to come over as  reliable, or enthusiastic, or creative. There must be alignment between your dress and the image you are trying convey.
Don't dress in a way that will distract the interviewer; no novelty ties, distracting jewellery, too short a skirt or low cut blouses.
Do wear Mcguffins. Accessories that will attract attention for the right reason and make you memorable. For example cuff links, lapel badges and jewellery.
Get yourself a suit (advice for men and women). At some point irrespective of the organisational culture you will need one. If in doubt about what to wear always dress up, never down.
Get some nice accessories (pen, watch, suitcase,satchel,handbag). They don't have to be expensive but avoid tacky. For example a reasonable priced biro is preferable to one chewed at the end!
All clothes must always be freshly ironed.  Crumple is never a good look for an interview.

Work Experience

The recent fuss in the press about the government’s scheme to get the unemployed into unpaid work experience has raised unnecessary concerns about internships and work experience placements. Run properly, work experience placements can offer young, inexperienced graduates and school leavers an invaluable opportunity to get a foothold in the jobs market, help them find out what careers they may pursue, and show their potential in the workplace, even if they haven’t done that well at school or university. The other side of the coin is that work experience placements and internships give prospective employers an opportunity to “test drive” candidates and find out if they have what it takes to succeed. A trial period, with no pay, says “welcome to the world of work” and it’s a competitive job market out there. Employers are looking for more than just academic qualifications, they want to see people with a broad range of skills and experiences so an internship is a brilliant way to bridge the gap between college and the first job. The CIPD in their 2010 learning and talent development survey reported that 76% of employers view internships as a useful way of trying out new staff, with 78% agreeing that they are of long term benefit to the interns themselves in terms of the skills, knowledge and workplace experience acquired. A further 69% said that internships could help develop talent for their industry sector. People Management magazine recently pointed out that “at their highly-publicised worst internships allow unscrupulous employers to get months of unpaid work from young people desperate to do whatever they can to stand out in a difficult jobs market.” It isn’t always about cheap labour. A lot of companies genuinely want to help and to offer opportunities to young and unemployed people. Also it’s a practical way to find talent. It’s very difficult to find candidates with the right skills and potential to to fit into a team. Harder yet to know whether people without experience will fit the bill so there’s more at stake in taking them on. Internships let employers take a leap of faith –if it doesn’t work out, the intern gets valuable experience and the company has only lost out in terms of training time. Two-thirds of the top 100 graduate recruiters provide industrial placements – six to 12 months long and a formal part of degree courses – and over half offer paid vacation internships lasting at least three weeks. It’s true that a lot of internships are filled on the basis of “who you know” – again, welcome to the world of work. Inevitably those who are good at networking are at an advantage and there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of the networking skills of your parents and their friends, that’s what networking is all about. If you don’t have good connections, to help you out in this way, then you have to find some other way to make yourself stand out and to get your application noticed. So make sure you point out that you are a good fit with their diversity policy, for instance. Nearly a quarter of graduates are unemployed in the first year after leaving university says the Office for National Statistics. The majority of those graduates, 16.1% are still unemployed a year later, which shows the importance of internships that lead into meaningful work.There’s a big gap between college and work. Make sure you understand the rules of the game. Talk to other interns, talk to the hiring managers, get all the tips you can. As with all interviews preparation is key. Think long and hard about how you are going to convince them to hire you. What are you going to do to ensure you are memorable for all the right reasons? When you get a placement make sure you take time while you are there to be seen doing and saying the right things. Let people know that you are prepared to go the extra mile, ask lots of questions, particularly of your peers – how do things work, who does what? Use your time well. Youth unemployment is at an all time high so any opportunity to get some experience which will help you get a job should be welcome. Putting in the effort is so that at the end of the internship you are in with the best possible chance of being offered a permanent role. Be nice to HR person and the executive assistants in the department. Make sure you thank people for giving you a chance. Ask for feedback – this is to help you find the right direction but also to show you can take direction and follow instructions. Your placement is an opportunity to showcase your current skill set, gain practical, relevant experience and make useful contacts in your chosen industry. From my experience as both a career coach and as a HR professional who has extensive recruitment experience, further education does not prepare students well for the world of work. Most enter the job market will little or no coaching as to what is required to get a job or for that matter to plan a career. However, not all the fault can be laid at the door of the careers advisors. Business rarely ventures into the world of academia. City & Guilds recently looked at the gaps between education and employment and how we might close those gaps. Chris Jones, CEO and director general of City & Guilds says "We are calling for an all-party parliamentary group to bring together key stakeholders across education, business and the Government to tackle this problem - working together to get young people working. We believe more needs to be done to ensure young people get the advice and experience they deserve”. To some extent business gets the candidates it deserves. As always there are notable exceptions but the general consensus appears to be students need more help, and business requires better prepared candidates. We need to bridge this gap. UK plc is wasting a lot of talent. Not enough companies build good links with educational establishments so there is fault on both sides. Educationalists are used to working in an academic meritocracy, they don’t have much experience of the business world on the whole. A degree is a great base for career building, but when an intern gets real life experience in the workplace they learn fast and build confidence and communication skills that make a real difference. The placement definitely helped me build confidence in my abilities Work experience and internships are a valuable opportunity to develop knowledge, skills and experience in a real working environment. They can also give an insight into what a particular career has to offer.

How often should I change my job?

The job for life no longer exists. Modernisation of the world of work means many employees must now work harder to turn their dream career into reality. The old career paths have disappeared and you have to take responsibility for your career and progress.

Perhaps you feel you’ve reached a career ceiling but still have the drive and tenacity to rise further. You want to move on to fresh challenges and higher levels of creativity. Keeping your career afloat may feel like you’re navigating hazardous and murky waters, especially during times of company mergers and acquisitions, downsizing, “right sizing,” and “offshoring.” If you need to reinvent your career then you need to understand your job market.

Even if you’re happy where you are it’s smart to keep an eye on what’s out there. It fosters a healthy sense of possibility and adventure. It’s a good idea to peek your head over your laptop from time to time in case some interesting opportunity is in the offing. Chances are, you’ll change jobs at some point and when you get serious about finding a new role, then being familiar with the market will give you an advantage.

Moving jobs often used to be viewed with suspicion. However, this attitude is changing and the once negative image of job-hopping is now being seen as ambitious. In some industries, if you stayed at the same job for five years, you'd have some explaining to do.

This doesn't mean the job-hopper stigma has completely vanished. If you've got too many jobs on your CV, you may be pigeon-holed as unstable, disloyal, or unable to work as part of a team, especially if these jobs are typically for terms of six months or less. You need to be able to show commitment. A pattern of frequent moves will begin to affect your credibility in the recruitment market. You can make one but not three mistakes.

If your changing roles show a steady career progression, or a series of increasingly challenging assignments, then you should be able to turn it into an asset. If you left a job for a promotion, or a position with greater responsibilities, emphasise that aspect of the transition and how it has provided you with more experience and skills.

Recent graduates sometimes worry about leaving a job after only 10 or 12 months. Will they be thought flaky? Will they get another job? But sometimes things just don’t work out and employers understand that. If you're moving into a different sector, especially if it's early in your career, an employer will appreciate your honesty in explaining your position. Take the opportunity to emphasise that you're taking charge of your career and looking for new challenges. It's better to look elsewhere to develop your career if you feel your current job is not providing enough scope.

3 P's of successful interview technique

How to improve your interview technique

Becoming an exceptional candidate is something you can do. Most people don’t take the trouble. Most interviews don’t go that well; most people are bad at them. The truth is that many recruiters are not particularly good at interviewing either nor particularly effective. So, if you prepare properly, and are a good interviewee the odds are stacked in your favour.

To put in a good performance think about planning, practice and positive psychology. An interview is an audition. You need to project yourself as the sort of the person the interviewer wants to hire; as someone they want on the team.

Be Prepared

It’s not just a question of researching the organisation. You need to understand your interviewer and why he is hiring. One way or another he is seeking a resource as a solution to an identified problem. Just checking out their website and report and accounts is not enough.

Work on understanding the organisational need and how you can add value. Look at the challenges and opportunities they face and work out how to show that your experience and expertise are relevant. Explore their marketplace, competitors and the changes taking place in the industry sector concerned.

Use your network to find information about the interviewer and his preferences, the company and its culture. Use LinkedIn and ZoomInfo to gather all the intelligence you can.

Practice your answers

I don't necessarily mean being word perfect. I'm talking about what you say when anyone asks you what you do, why you left, what you have achieved and so on. Can you talk about yourself comfortably, with confidence, concisely with clarity? Practice so that you have the right words, so that you don't get flustered, so that you talk at the right pace and, crucially, know when to stop. Remember the need for consistency between words and body language.

In an interview situation you have to know your CV by heart. None of it pops into your head at the last minute; you know what you are going to say and what spin you are going to put on it. A good interviewee has learned his or her lines in advance and is focussing much more on delivery than on off the cuff replies.

What you really need to do, though, is to make the interview interactive! People trained in interview techniques are told to use the 70/30 rule. That is to say the interviewer aims to talk for about 30% of the time allotted and the candidate talks 70% of the time, in response.

The smart candidate actually wants a 50/50 dialogue. You should aim for a conversation, directed along the lines you prefer – whereby you can play to your strengths. The interviewer can only go with what you give them. This is best illustrated by using the “what was your biggest business mistake?” question. Do you really want to tell them your biggest mistake? Really? You decide!

Positive interaction is what you are aiming for in the interview situation. Make it easy for the interviewer by saying “Have I told you all you need to know on that subject? Can I give you more detail?” Build rapport, find some commonality. But remember it’s not a monologue, you are both actors in this interview and it is a dialogue, a conversation, not a solo performance.

Positive Psychology

Henry Ford famously said “If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right”. You’re motivated, you’ve done the prep and have the drive to succeed so visualise success.

Whether you call it confidence or self-esteem or self-belief, to shine at interview you need to show that you will make a good employee. Show that you are good at inter-acting and reading your situation, good at selling yourself and your ideas. Practicing your interview technique will make it so much easier to shine. There’s no need to be nervous is you believe you are a good candidate. If you believe you can do it, then you can do it. You know it because you have prepared, practiced and are ready to show what you can do.

Follow Through

After the interview send in a letter. Thank them for seeing you. Reiterate how interested you are in them and the role. Review the key points of the interview when you discussed challenges and opportunities and outline how you can help them meet these.

No guarantees but if you work at it you’ll become a better interviewee and give yourself an advantage in a tough economic climate.

The Perfect CV

The Perfect CV – Does it Exist?

You need a CV that works for you. If you ask a career coach or recruiter about CV format you’ll get a different answer from each of them. There’s no right way to write a CV but it’s really important that you are happy with it and it reflects your brand and so is “fit for purpose”.

I think there’s an over-emphasis on the importance of the CV. Jobseekers spend hours redefining, refreshing, rewriting them. I firmly believe that, a great CV notwithstanding, networking and getting in front of the relevant “point of purchase” person is your first priority. The CV is little more than a “leave behind” albeit an important one.

It is a marketing document and you should be aware that the average recruiter is likely to spend no more than 2-3 minutes reading it. In my experience most people who interview others for jobs look at the CV on the way to the interview room.

A CV is a working document, an organic and flexible tool that evolves. It’s always written for a particular organisation or a particular job and so you must constantly adjusting the content so that you tell your readers what they want to hear.

Having said that you should always have one ready. So although I tried to convince you that it is not really important here are the things you need to know about a good CV.

You want it to stand out and you want it be different. A marketing document needs to be eye-catching but for the right reasons. All too often the wrong reasons are spelling and grammar! You’d be surprised how many people go to grammar school but can’t spell the word grammar.

Write it from the perspective of the reader or, increasingly, from the perspective of the search engines that search on key words.

So an outline sequential order of the key elements:
Start with a profile – to catch the eye and tell where you have come from, where you are going, what you are looking for. Avoid words like dynamic, ambitious, creative – there is no way to prove those things. Make the profile a factual statement.
Previous experience should be listed, in chronological order from the most recent role. Recruiters are only interested in the last 10 years. Focus on outputs which should be quantitative. Process, i.e. what drove outputs, is less important.
You might include a brief positioning statement – what the job was and where it sat in organisation but avoid in-house jargon.
Tell it as a journey - a successful one.
Arrange achievements to reflect the importance of these issues relative to the organisation or role you are applying for.
Outside the 10 years just briefly say where else you worked.
Now the tricky bit - that really distinguishes the excellent candidate from an average one. If you listed achievements you have probably got onto page two. If the interviewer is still reading then you have caught their interest. What you have to do next is take that to another level. You need to say something memorable about yourself to spark an interest in arranging to meet. For example, I remember from outplacement client CVs:–
A Lloyds broker who worked as part of Tony Blair’s delegation to China;
A marketing guy responsible for the introduction of Fosters lager via the Paul Hogan adverts;
A finance director looking for move into general management role who had no marketing experience. He had, however, worked actively for a small charity on flag-day sales and as chairman of trustees and there had been significant revenue growth under his aegis.
Something like this quoted in your CV is really useful. This is where you name-drop people you know or have worked with. You can use your life outside work. If you’ve done work for a trade association, have been published or undertaken public speaking engagements mention them here.

Don’t put cycling, walking, or theatre, down as hobbies. Dull, dull and duller.
The length of your CV is a matter of discretion – it doesn’t have to be one page of A4 but it can’t be on 15 pages. Designed to sell you as an individual, a research analyst may go into some detail reflecting varied or specific research capability whereas a City trader may get a CV onto one page, there’s no fixed rule.
Next is qualifications – show the highest level of qualification you have. If you have degree then don’t list your O and A levels or your cycling proficiency certificate. That’s all there is to it.

Make it easy to use, don’t forget your contact details, preferably at the top of the page. Your mobile number is very important. Don’t have a stupid email address – hotbabe@hotmail is not going to make a good impression. Equally something obscure such as mdm136@gmail is not memorable and my Outlook drop-down won’t find it easily. Your email address should be name-based.

Job done. Don’t spend too much time on it, get networking.

Why most people just don't get networking

Networking- How to Create Value for Others

Most people know that networking is an important business skill but most people avoid and dislike it. That's because most people fail to understand what networking is all about. Only network with people you like. Networking depends on reciprocity.

Networking success depends on reciprocity – it works because you are willing and able to trade or reciprocate favours. You’re more likely to get help with a problem from a colleague at work if you have helped him or her out in the past. The payback may not be immediate but is likely to be proportional to the help you give.

The Good Samaritan principal applies to networking. It’s about adding value, helping people in your network with no expectation of anything in return. Networking well is hard work with no certainty of reward. In fact you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a princess.

If you create value for others, your social capital increases - you empower yourself through connecting and giving.

In business terms your network is made up of four main categories of people – colleagues, clients, suppliers, professional peers. When you are job hunting you need a minimum of 250 people in your network. You should aim for an overall network of 350 people who constantly feed information through to you and to whom you respond with information that is useful to them.

If you’re not sure about networking, bear in mind:
You’ve probably already used networking skills
There are many established networks that you can use
Most people are flattered to be approached for advice
Other people do it so if you don’t you'll lose out to those who do!
Many people establish successful careers through networking
You can ask politely for help and they can always say no
it is just a way of identifying opportunities

So what makes a good networker?
Good networkers are easily accessible and friendly. They smile and are welcoming however or whenever you meet them. They are responsive and quick to return calls and emails. Good networkers follow up and they don’t look for rewards.

Good networkers trade information and offer advice and expertise, the sort of information that is usually something you have not already thought of. They give you leads and they introduce you to their contacts because they take pleasure in being a conduit. It’s a bit like a marriage broker, they like being people to get together. They like to see others benefit from what they have done.

Love it or hate it networking is a sure way of increasing your access to new employment opportunities. Dale Carnegie 71 years ago in his book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ set the scene for the importance of developing and maintaining relationships for mutual benefit throughout all stages of career development.

And it’s not just about professional help, help where you can. It could be anything from discount deals, good restaurants, reliable plumbers as well trading information about jobs and potential roles.

So create time to network inside and outside of your organisation. Give it at least two hours a week, one networking meeting inside and one outside and typically do that at lunch or over coffee. And remember when you are meeting people you are collecting data which you need to record systematically as you won't be able to recall those all important personal details otherwise. Build a CRM database. People feel valued if you can recall something about them which is important to them e.g wife's name, occupation, something special about their children etc. It makes the feel important, as if they matter to you.

The idea of networking is to approach people you know or who are known to people you know, for help and advice. Every time you make a new helpful contact you then tap into their network and get introductions to a new range of contacts. Gradually you build up a large list of people who can help you.

Network, network, network. Effective networking requires time, effort, organisation and a certain amount of courage. People who are really successful at networking are well connected, both inside and outside the organisation. The people skills you develop through networking are essential as you move into more senior positions and will give you a competitive advantage over the course of your career.

But share, don’t be a bore. A lot of people are one-way networkers. Don’t be a user, who only makes contact when you need something from someone. The key to good networking is doing things for others. That way you’ll be in credit when you need an introduction or information.

Michael Moran
CEO, 10 Eighty

New Year career resolutions

Career new year resolutions: 10 things you need to do.

By this time in January many of us are already giving up on the resolutions we set ourselves at the start of the year. So I thought it appropriate to offer my advice on what you should be doing to enhance your career in 2012.

Create time to think about your career.
Write down where you would like to be or have achieved in terms of personal development in 12 months time.
Seek feedback from someone who knows you well as to whether this goal is attainable.
Write down a plan of what you need to put in place to achieve the objective.
Set yourself 2 or 3 milestones which you will need to achieve in order to reach your overall goal.
Identify within your network 2/3 people with whom you have a strong relationship and they have power of influence i.e. if they put in a call on your behalf, the recipient will take it, and make them aware of your career plan for this year.
Share your career plan with your boss or one of his/her peers.
Set yourself the task of helping 5 people in your network, what you do is not important, provided it adds value to them.
Set time aside to understand your personal brand. What is it you want to be known for? Think of two things you need to do to enhance that personal brand.
Commit to spending time to learn a new skill or to increase your knowledge in a subject area that will increase your employability.