In a job search, focus on the things you can control – not on the things you cannot control. What does this mean? In a slow market, you cannot always judge the quality of your efforts by the number of interviews or offers you are generating. You cannot control when an employer will decide to hire someone with your skills. You cannot make an employer interview you or extend an offer. You CAN control the out-going activity you are generating.  Consistency in levels of weekly activity will lead to success. Become consistent in finding and raising your visibility with people who can either hire you to do the work you want to do or with people who can introduce you to such hiring authorities.  If you are job hunting full time, I would strive to target 10 such people each day to create the velocity needed to be successful in your search efforts.

Picture the job-hunting process like a bumpy conveyor belt. Your various efforts to continually raise your visibility with employers are the products you are putting on the front end of this conveyor belt. An appropriate job offer is what emerges at the end of the conveyor belt. Given the “bumps” along the way that you cannot control (last minute budget cuts, etc.), many of your efforts can fall to the wayside in a slow market. However, as long as you are consistent (note that I am not saying frenetic) about your front-end activity, take heart that a job offer, that you will be happy accepting, will emerge from the back end.  An excellent trainer in the staffing industry shared this analogy with me and I have found that it is indeed a very accurate way to envision your on-going job search efforts and progress.

These days if you don’t get your resume into the hands of the “right person,” you might as well not send it out at all. 

One of the greatest mistakes job hunters make is to send their resumes only to individuals who receive hundreds of resumes a week.  These are the individuals listed in advertisements, on job boards or as the “contact person” for company career sites.  Insight:  Most resumes that are sent this way are not reviewed by this individual – or any individual for that matter.  The sheer volume of responses makes an initial review by an actual human being unrealistic in many instances.  The company or job site may be using a parsing program to first load resumes into a database.  An autoresponder is sending you that seemingly personalized, but formulaic acknowledgement letter.  If your resume does not contain the all important keywords and narrowly defined years of experience, your resume may never be retrieved later for review – even if you are qualified.  When resumes are initially screened by an individual, let’s be fair, the sheer number of responses this person may have to plow through may make a thorough reading of each resume - including your resume - impossible.  Further, the person in the ad is rarely the hiring manager and he or she may not have the deep expertise to properly assess your credentials.  (The hiring manager is too busy for this amount of initial screening.)  Also, if you applied to a specific ad, your resume now sits in a large pool of other respondents who are your competitors wanting this same position.   This all adds up to a low percentage deal for you. 

What should you do?  I do realize that some employers require that you submit your resume online at some point for “official” consideration.  There are many reasons for this, but suffice to say that you should do so if required.  But in addition, you will also want to put your resume into the hands of the person who can actually hire you to do the work you would like to do.  Normally, this person does not deal with a large number of resumes.  This is usually a department head.  Ask yourself this question:  Who is the person who, given your skills and interest, would be your boss, or your boss’s boss?   Researching legal or business directories, searching your LinkedIn network, networking with colleagues or simply calling the company to determine who is in the position of interest to you can help you identify the person with whom you should connect.   Send your resume to this person and follow-up with him or her.  Starting from here will produce better results for you than trusting your career to a databasing function that may erroneously screen you out – and never provide you with useful feedback.

Does this sound familiar? You have thought carefully about a career move and weighed the benefits for you, your family and your career. You have decided to accept the new position and are now ready to give notice.  When you speak to your boss, he or she says some version of: “Wait a minute. You won’t believe this, but we have big plans for you and I was just about to tell you about them! Let’s discuss what can be done to make you stay.” Surprising and enticing promises are made.  You find this is flattering.  Others involved in this drama, however, begin to view you as unfocused, indecisive or even opportunistic.  You start getting emotionally confused and pulled off your center. What’s happening here?

 Understanding and handling various types of counteroffers are very complex subjects – ones that can not be fully addressed in one short blog post. Anyone who has been involved in any amount of hiring will have experienced this drama at some point in his or her career.  Down deep, no hiring authority really likes it.  After more than 20 years experience in the hiring trenches, let me cut to the quick for you on this subject:

Why should you leave one job for another? The simple answer is because the new position can provide you with the role and level of responsibility, the career path, the personal fit and the remuneration that, given the aforementioned career factors, is right for you.  Also, these things are either unavailable or would likely take a long time to achieve where you are at now.  How can you know this, if you do not have a good sense of your career prospects already? Because you can test this out with your employer before you start interviewing somewhere else.

If you are seriously tempted to explore opportunities outside of your current circumstance, do yourself this favor:  I would recommend that you first sit down with your boss in a relaxed manner to discuss your work performance, career interests and needs. Find out if your goals and interests are achievable with this employer. If your compensation is of concern, ask what kind of growth you can expect over time. The tone of this conversation should be friendly and interested, with your only desire being to form proper expectations regarding how your career will unfold, assuming good performance, within this organization.  This conversation will not be fruitful if it sounds like you are frustrated or presenting an ultimatum.  In this kind of discussion, you should receive an honest response regarding how this employer views what is possible for you.  There is no leverage being applied by you. You are just asking about what is real and what you can genuinely expect.  Now you know your employer’s “real truth” about you.

If you do not like what you hear, then feel comfortable about exploring a change.  More importantly, don’t second guess yourself down the road if you do decide to leave for that better opportunity. When you give notice, please know that, in most cases, your leaving is creating a stressful situation for your employer.  Promises of a new position, more money or that change you were hoping for are sometimes made by employers to entice you to stay. Why is this?  Because it is easier and cheaper to try to keep a good employee than to find a replacement.  Therefore, counteroffers are extended.  However, long experience shows that, even with the best of intentions, employers can not and will not change their systems or culture in any substantive way for the desires of just one employee.  (Remember that you have already learned what your employer can do for you.)  The promises of more money and/or change can be that quick reaction made by employers to tempt a valued employee to stay a little longer to “work things out” (and, very importantly, turn down that new offer.)  Here is the reality:  Follow through on these extraordinary promises is much more difficult and, in the long term, most employers regret having had to extend a counteroffer to retain a “disloyal” employee.  Guess what - in accepting a counteroffer, you have, in most cases, just burned a bridge with the employer who hoped to hire you and tarnished your reputation with your current employer.  Even with the best of intentions, very recent studies have shown that 50% of the people who have accepted such counteroffers are no longer with that same employer just 6 months later!  This is usually because not much changed – the real reasons a person wanted to leave in the first place were not materially impacted.

 The moral of this story is that you should take your time up front and think through your career options in a balanced and careful manner.  If you do make the decision to leave, show decisiveness and do not play the counteroffer game – you will most likely get burned.

There are helpful ways to approach making a career decision and to effectively – and smoothly – give notice, but these will be the subject of further posts.

It is well documented that over 50% of individuals obtain their next position as a result of networking.  At essence, networking is ultimately about raising your visibility with the people who can hire you to do what you are interested in doing.  It is true that the end goal of networking is to obtain job leads, but networking is more of a journey than this simple definition suggests.  What happens is this:  You start by speaking with people you already know.  Where appropriate, they link you to people they know (and so forth) which hopefully results in an increased flow of useful information about you, your career interests, the market and ultimately job opportunities.  It is important to realize that not everyone is in a position to offer you the same kind of help.  Yes, you are seeking job leads, but not everyone may be in a position to do so.  It would be more useful and satisfying for you to think of networking in the following way.  You are seeking to connect with people who can fulfill the following helpful roles in your job search: 

Challengers – People who will ask you the hard questions and force you to carefully consider the direction you have chosen.  They challenge you to face the important questions about your life.

Experts – These are people in your field whom you respect and value as a professional contact.  These people are quite skilled at what they do.

Hubs – These people are very well connected.  They know a lot of people and can provide you with both information and people to contact.  Note that such people can be outside of your line of work, so think broadly here.

Mentors – People who will guide you and teach you what they know.

Promoters – These are people who will take an active role in helping you.  They will actively promote you and/or advise you of developing opportunities.

Role Models – These people have achieved what you aspire to.  They are examples to learn from and emulate.

As you speak with people about your job search, you will be more successful and find the process more satisfying if you believe that everyone has something of value to offer you.  Especially seek to connect with people who can fulfill the above roles in your job search.

A good friend of mine asked me to critique the cover letter she wanted to use in her job search.  Without going into the details of her situation, let me share what I counseled her – and also believe will be helpful to you: 

It is my opinion that effective cover letters need to be short and written with the employers perspective foremost.  Imagine the first sentence of such a letter reading something like this:  “Can your firm use the help of a skilled employment attorney?”  Note how the employer can immediately understand what you are offering and whether it makes sense to read any further.   Believe me that most people do not have the time or patience to read long cover letters to figure out who you are and how they might be able to use your background.  It’s up to you to say how you can be of service to them. 

A cover letter is also a writing sample and an important part of the first impression you make.   Ensure that it is well crafted.   

Avoid letters with descriptions extolling what you believe are your personal attributes, such as the following:  “I am an overachiever with superlative people skills;”  “I am a change agent,” etc.  Let the description of your key accomplishments and contributions lead the reader to these understandings.  It is more believable and powerful that way. 

Cover letters are often separated from resumes or simply thrown out after being read.  Make sure your resume includes the same vital points in a visible way that the cover letter presents.    

Remember that cover letters and resumes are marketing documents.  Also, most of the time today, this information is being sent electronically.  The cover letter e-mail message encourages the employer to open up and read your resume.  Your resume presents just enough information to entice the employer to meet with you to learn more from you directly. 

As a side comment, I sometimes receive emails from people in which no message is written, just a document attached.  I think that people think that I know that this attachment is a resume and/or cover letter.  Note that in the age of malicious viruses, few people open these to find out.  Please introduce yourself in the e-mail message. 

If you have personal profiles on LinkedIn and other social networking sites, read them carefully.  Ensure that they are consistent with or complement the image of yourself that your cover letter and resume present.  Employers are checking.

For those of you looking for your next position, I would like to ask you the following:  “What is your core message about yourself?”  Let me qualify this further:  If you had just one minute to present yourself to the employer of your dreams, what would you say?  If I gave you an additional minute to talk, what benefits about yourself would you add?  This 1-2 minute “commercial” about yourself is truly the FOUNDATION of your job search effort.  To develop a more compelling sales message about yourself, consider the following:

What are your strengths and true interests?

Who is your target market and what is important to these folks?

What do you offer that others do not?

What are you doing these days and what are you looking for?

What is the MAIN point you are trying to make?  What is the most important information you want to share?

An excellent trainer I know suggested that candidates complete this sentence:  I help ______________ who ______________ so they can _____________________.

Your commercial is not about giving great detail about your last job.  It should stress what you have accomplished for your employers / clients and what you are able to offer to your next employer.   This message is critical and one of our mailing list articles is devoted solely to this topic.   

Think about developing one message for people you are networking with and one for employers.  Crafting and refining this message into a strong and clear benefit statement about who you are, what you bring to the table and what you are seeking from the person with whom you are speaking will greatly improve all aspects of your job search.

I do appreciate the supportive e-mails we have received about our website and this blog.    I view this blog as an opportunity to share with you proven insights that we have about job hunting, so please contact us with any questions you would like me to address.

A question that I have been frequently asked lately goes something like this:  “What would I recommend to someone who has been job hunting with little success over the past six months?”  At essence, the answer is this:  If you have not been getting the results you want, you need to change the way you are handling your job search.  If you continue to do the same thing and communicate the same message in the same way, your job search will provide the same results.

OK – now for the reality check.  Let’s face it, in a strong hiring market, job hunting is a lot less work.  You can get away with making a few mistakes in your job hunting and interviewing and still be successful.  Not so in slow times.   Job hunting in today’s market will, in most cases, take more time and require stronger job hunting skills to achieve success.

Let’s consider the employers situation today.  In a slow market, it is an arduous process for a hiring manager to obtain an approval to fill a position.  When he or she does, it is usually because there is a critical need at either a junior or experienced level to impact a problem or capitalize on a business opportunity.  And the pressure is on the hiring manager to find a strong contributor - someone with not only the baseline skills, but also the career focus, talent and energy to embrace this need and help achieve the results desired.   I would say that most job seekers are not researching deep enough or preparing themselves well enough to understand how to connect with employers at this level.

OK – I hear you.  This is easy to say, but what does this mean for you.  My quick advice is this:  Do not try to be all things to all people.  Think about your skills, your strengths and what you enjoy the most.  Compete where you are strongest and happiest.  Create a strong and concise message about yourself.  Raise your visibility with all the people in the geography of interest to you who can hire you to do what you want to do.

Examining what has worked and not worked in your job search may require help, so reach out to mentors, job hunting guidebooks or job hunting professionals to look deeper into these elements of your job search.  Here are some basic questions to consider:

Are your job goals appropriate for you and this market? 

Are your job goals too unfocused?

What does your resume communicate? Is it really strong enough?

If you only had 1-2 minutes to speak to an employer, what message would you communicate?  How clear is this message? 

Does your message address “what is in it” for the employer to consider you?  Do you know enough about the employer to even make this connection to their potential needs?

Have you really created enough velocity in your job search by speaking to enough people and sending out enough resumes?

Do you need more advice on what corrections you should make in your job search?

One final thought:  Michael Jordan, the basketball legend, missed more shots than he ever made.  Let’s face it, in job hunting today, so will you.  Not every employer you contact will be in a position to hire you.  Further, you may have made some classic mistakes not only in your job search, but also in your career thus far.   Know that life does allow you a way to move on.  To achieve success, learn from these important lessons, let go, make changes and keep going.