Motivation | JobTabs Job Search & Resume

December 21, 2010

Age Discrimination is Over!

Filed under: Job Searching,JobTabs,Motivation,Resume Writing,Sell Yourself — Tags: Career, jobhunt, jobsearch, jobseeker, resume, Resume Writing — admin @ 12:23 am

Who's the boss?

There is a steady undercurrent in the job search space about age discrimination. I believe it. However, what I don’t believe is that it cannot be overcome. People, it is all about packaging.

Think about it for a moment. Let’s say someone is 50 years old and has been in the workforce in varying capacities for roughly 30 years. This person has 30 years from which to draw accomplishments which are relevant to any job posting he applies to. Take someone who has only been in the workforce for 5 years. That person only has 5 years from which they can reference relevant accomplishments when applying for a job. This gives experienced job seekers a huge advantage over less experienced hires.

The key word here is relevant. What many job seekers fail to grasp is that the likelihood of their next job being an exact match of what they have been doing up to this point is nearly zero. When applying to a new job, there is invariably going to be some nuance of the job posting that the applicant is going to have to correlate to his experience to date. Examples could include,

Managing other people.
Setting goals and a course of action for projects.
Working within a budget of varying sizes.
Demonstrating some knowledge of government law such as safety, employment, environmental, etc.

Experienced job seekers, if they work hard to chronicle their career to date, would have a much easier time getting under the bar to fulfil what the employer is looking for. Then there are a host of subjective considerations that the senior job candidate is far more likely qualified.

Conflict resolution among individuals, teams or departments.
Proactive problem solving.
Identifying the chain of command and working within it to get buy in.
Generally more likely to be looked to as a leader by subordinates than by someone closer to their own age.

A cornerstone of JobTabs Job Search & Resume success has been its ability to easily manage a large number of resumes for a wide number of job opportunities. As the experienced job seeker applies to more and more positions, he gradually accumulates more and more supremely tailored resumes for different job descriptions. Here is the lynch pin . . . . as the experienced job seeker creates more resumes in JobTabs, it becomes easier and easier to create even more refined dead-on resumes for each job they apply to. The breadth and depth of their experience is pared down to only what is absolutely relevant to the immediate job posting – as it should be! Creating a copy of a resume that meets 80% of the requirements and bringing it over 95% becomes incredibly easy!

While the junior candiate has his own advantages, he does not have the experience pool that a 50 something job seeker has. This is a very touchy subject among many. If you have any enlightening comments to share with me I would readily welcome them. Otherwise, age discrimination is over!

John Coffey is the President of JobTabs, LLC. Through JobTabs Job Search & Resume, thousands of job seekers have taken control of their destiny in finding new and fulfilling careers. JobTabs Job Search & Resume motivates job seekers by making the job search easier by a huge order of magnitude. John Coffey can be reached via his website at JobTabs Job Search & Resume, by email via jpcoffey at jobtabs.com, and by phone at 404-255-0248.

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March 6, 2009

Unemployment 8.1% – Perspective

Filed under: Job Searching,JobTabs,Motivation,Sell Yourself — Tags: Employment, job hunt, Job Search, JobTabs — admin @ 12:30 pm

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says February unemployment checks in at 8.1 percent. That would be 651,000 jobs in the tank.

Ouch. Breath in . . . . . breath out . . . . This is mind numbing news. The kind of news when you just sit there in front of the tube in utter disbelief, kind of trying to drink in the impact of the news. What have we done to ourselves? While this is hardly a 9/11, I can’t remember being immobilized in front of the TV at any point since 9/11. On that fateful day, I sat in front of the TV in utter disbelief. I didn’t call in to say I would be late to work. I didn’t worry about what kind of reception I would get when I got there. I staggered in at about 10:00 a.m. that morning and the office was deserted. The only people there were sitting in front of their computers crying. Again, 8.1% unemployment is no 9/11 but it is the kind of news that said things are going to be very different from now on.

As a mentor to job seekers my job is to put this news in perspective.

Competition

There are less openings to go around, but there are still lots of openings. You cannot allow this to escape you. An 8.1% unemployment rate is not going to bring this economy to a halt. I’m not going to get all technical on you, but full employment is roughly around 4%. Full employment means that there would be 4 out of every 100 people looking for a job even if the economy was running at full throttle. So now we have a little more than 8 people out of a 100 looking for a job. This means if 92 people out of 100 are working, then there are 92 jobs that need to get done. This is 92 jobs that companies will pay people to do and your job is to find one or get the company to create it on your behalf because you are so good at what you do. Again, 92 out of every 100 people have jobs that are worth being paid for.

Income

Sophomore level economics states that price is the equilibrium point where supply equals demand. Since there is a high supply of people looking for a job, prepare to take a good deal less than what you would normally accept. Its a downer, but it is a stark reality of the economy. Again, bite the bullet. To illustrate, remember when you didn’t sell any stock two months ago because the price was too low? What is the value of those stocks now? Again, take it on the chin. Accept the lesser income and you will be glad you did. If you could have got more, you can take that up with your boss once you start adding value.

Gloves Off

Take the gloves off. In a particularly competitive job market you need to milk every advantage you can get. It does not matter if someone is better trained or has better experience than you do. This is a stark reality of the job market. Your ability to sell yourself as the person the company needs the most is the sole determinant of who gets the job. If you can morph your experience on your resume more easily than the next guy – more power to you. If you have a tool that tracks your job search activity in the background while you focus on your job search that is a feather in your cap. If you are able to employ a resource that allows you to reach wider and dig deeper than you have an advantage and nobody would knock you for leveraging that advantage. Look at some of these solutions and see if you can find one you can use.

In closing, once you get over the jolt it is time to roll up your sleeves and get on with the business of life. I welcome your comments below and encourage a dialog on this very alarming news.

John Coffey is the President of JobTabs, LLC. Through JobTabs Job Search & Resume, thousands of job seekers have taken control of their destiny in finding new and fulfilling careers. JobTabs Job Search & Resume motivates job seekers by making the job search easier by a huge order of magnitude. John Coffey can be reached via his website at JobTabs Job Search & Resume, by email via jpcoffey at jobtabs.com, and by phone at 404-255-0248.

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March 5, 2009

The Job Search Game Plan

Filed under: Job Searching,Motivation,Networking — Tags: Career, Employment, JobTabs, Motivation — admin @ 12:36 am

Image of a football huddle. If your job search isn’t going anywhere, how can you change it if you never had a game plan in the first place?

Show me someone who advocates looking for a job by the seat of your pants and I will show you someone who is unemployed. Gentle reader, a game plan doesn’t have to be a complicated flow chart or something constraining. A simple agenda is all we are talking about. The means which people use to find their next job will be as varied as the people themselves. What works for Bob may not work for Ann, however anything that helps both Bob and Ann keep their head on straight and objectively plan and implement their job search will work for both of them.

I work with a lot of job seekers and I often advise them to work with job listings and recruiters first. Most people are not used to writing or even looking for a job for that matter. This is the reason that I advise them to, initially, work the job boards. They have to get in the groove of selling themselves and that like many things this will take practice. While networking is touted as the best means of getting a job, it is better to make a mistake/faux pas on your job search in the anonymity of cyberspace than it is to make a mistake networking with your next door neighbor.

The recruiters will serve as pseudo-career coaches because when you meet with a recruiter, that recruiter can give you a lot of advice on honing your resume and helping you sell yourself. Granted, a cannot recruiter provide the comprehensive feedback that a career coach can provide. However, when you work with a recruiter you are, so to speak, their product, and they have a vested interest in helping you convince employers that you are the candidate of choice. Recruiters are battle hardened professionals and they have much to gain by helping you get a job offer.

After job seekers prep their skills with job boards and recruiters, I encourage them to start working their network. They will be much better at selling their qualifications after getting some exposure to recruiters and job boards. Planning/implementing your job search is important. Write down, how many jobs you will apply to on the job boards. Commit to sitting down face to face with recruiters in an effort to get their feedback on your marketability. Beg them to shoot straight with you if you have to – just get the facts. Come up with a plan that allows flexibility to create more resumes and tweak each one depending on the requirements solicited. Schedule time to meet with your networking groups. Finally – and this is so important – review the plan and change it. You know, like wash, rinse, repeat.

Show me someone who advocates looking for a job by the seat of your pants and I will show you someone who is unemployed.

As job seekers work with different channels, their job search skills need to evolve and get stronger. They need to build upon a foundation and pay dividends. The job search for most job seekers is a crap shoot where you put your chips on the table and roll the dice. As the job search progresses they think they are becoming better job seekers, but in actuality they are just becoming better gamblers. It is still a losing game and is leading job seekers down a path of dejection and despondency. They can’t see that because they have no plan nor a record of a an implementation to give themselves or a mentor/career coach an objective view as to what they have been doing. Write down your goals, write down your agenda, and stick to it until it is time to reevaluate it.

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March 3, 2009

Job Searching – Employ A Tool

Filed under: Job Searching,JobTabs,Motivation — Tags: Career, Employment, Job Search, JobTabs, Motivation, Resume Writing — admin @ 12:32 am

The job search can be a maddening experience for many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is the organizational burden it imposes. Consider all of the jobs you will eventually apply to. Whether they are sourced from your professional network, the web, or the newspaper you are going to have to have to keep track of exactly which job you applied to. Then we have the research that applies to each and every employer. That needs to be collected, catalogued, and readily available should they decide to interview you. Which resume did you send them? And all of those cover letters that you crafted with pain staking detail. Keeping those at the ready is just as important as managing your resumes. With all of the paper work it can be extremely taxing for even very organized people to keep track of. If it is tough for organized people to manage it all, what are normal people supposed to do?

Employ a tool when job searching. You can google “job search software” or go to download.com and type in “job search” to evaluate packages as there are lots of them out there. We suggest keeping the following key points in mind when weighing the value of different packages.

MS Word. A first rate tool will be seamlessly integrated with MS Word or employ a word processor that will create MS Word documents. In addition to making you look more professional, many employers prefer resumes in MS Word format. You should make this a consideration a priority when looking for a tool.

Manage Resumes. As you pursue different opportunities, there will invariably be some shade of gray of the job requirements that you will need to include in your resume. The likelihood of finding a job that mirrors your experience exactly will be few and far between. A professional caliber tool will be able to manage all of the different resumes you have created to qualify yourself for different positions. A tool that will keep a history of each resume as it changes over time will be an added plus.

Employ Templates. We firmly believe cover letters should be tailored to each and every job. However, do you really want to type your salutation, address and closing paragraph every time? The repetitive nature of the job search can sap job seekers of their motivation and you should consider a tool that will allow you to side step any work that smacks of repetition.

Jobs. Whether you find the job on the web or through your professional network you will need to capture every detail you possibly can – permanently. If the employer gets enough resumes and they pull the job posting off of monster.com will you be able to remember the details of the listing? Consider a tool that can capture listings and save them permanently.

Details. If you are serious about your job search, you will want to have a copy of every email you send anybody during the course of your job search. This should include notes of every conversation you have as well. You should be able to catalog all of your research on each employer and have it at the ready as well.

Automatic. This final consideration, we cannot emphasize enough. Employ a tool that automates the job search as much as possible. In other words, if you have to log every job search activity you do, aren’t you just working with a glorified spreadsheet? Isn’t that what you were doing before? If you send an email and you have to make a note of it aren’t you just adding to your burden? If you change your resume and have to make a note of it aren’t you encumbering yourself unnecessarily? We emphasize this, because most people are not prepared for the considerable amount of effort they are going to have to put forth to find the job that is going to bring them the happiness they are looking for. Repetitive, mind numbing work is what so many people dread when looking for a job. Employ a tool that can do it for you. Unless you can nullify much of the administrative burden, you are going to be belaboring yourself unnecessarily. To summarize,

When you find a job you want to pursue, there should be no cutting and pasting. You should be able to save it automatically.
When you create a new resume from an existing resume, it should be added to your arsenal of resumes automatically. When you change a resume, you should be able to continue your job search without having to record any changes you made to that resume. Yet you should still have all of the details of the prior versions in case a prior recipient wants to review it with you.
When you want to edit your resume, it should open up in MS Word or a word processor of that caliber automatically and keep a record of the changes so you don’t have to.
Every time you send an email it should be logged automatically. This will allow you to focus on your job search.
You should have a bird’s eye view of your status of every one of your job applications – based not on your ability to log events – but based on what you have accomplished in your job search.

Above all else, you should not have to log a single thing, because to do so would be to tax yourself even more. No doubt this is a tall order to fill, but these tools are out there and they can be had for less than $50. Our favorite is JobTabs Job Search & Resume. JobTabs fulfils all of these requirements and then some. Alternatively, you can google “job search software” or go to download.com to search for options. Liberate yourself from the administrative conundrum of the job search. You will be able to apply to jobs more easily, gain more confidence, and ultimately get better job offers.

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January 16, 2009

Get a Job Offer and Lose $50,000?!

Filed under: Job Searching,Motivation,Sell Yourself — Tags: Job Search, JobTabs, Motivation — admin @ 12:44 am

As we often tell our clients, it is very likely that you will eventually get a job in your field. That is rarely the challenge. The challenge is getting a job in your field in the place that you want to live and with a salary that would make you happy. If you love living in Tallahassee, Florida then how are you going to feel if the only job offer you can get is in Waxahachie, Texas? Would a move across the country cause a disruption in the lives of your spouse and your children? Of course it would. Would accepting a 35% cut in pay to stay in Tallahassee make you feel any better? Maybe, but it certainly wouldn’t make you feel good.

Take a moment to consider the true cost of a move in this economy. If you make $80K in Tallahassee, Florida and you get a job offer in Waxahachie, Texas for $80K, you may be looking at a $50K capital gains loss. What?! How so? If you bought your house for $250K and are trying to sell it in the worst housing market since the Great Depression what do you think you will be able to get for it? Wow, and to think that house could have sold for over $300K just a few years ago! You may have to sell your home for $50K less than you paid for it if you have only been living in it for a short time.

Our message is that you will want to have choices when considering a job. To have choices you need to have offers. To have offers you need to work on your job search with unbridled discipline. It is too expensive not to. The job search can be a real downer. Staying motivated and productive every day is absolutely essential to having an outcome you can be happy with. Sometimes just starting your job search is all you need to do to be productive all day and this is what we are encouraging you to do. Committing to working at it every day, at a certain hour and for a certain duration is extremely important. Share your regimen with your spouse and your children and let them know how important it is that you be allowed to work hard at your job search. If the prospect of writing one more resume or one more cold call makes you nauseous, commit to a smaller work window than you normally would. Commit to as little as two hours if you have to, if that is what it will take you to just start your job search. If you are still nauseous after two hours, you met your goal and can stop for the day. However, refrain from committing to a duration that you cannot fulfill or will discourage you from just starting your job search the next day. You will be amazed at how long you will stick with your job search if you can just bring yourself to the table. Again, it is not easy, but this works because so many have succeeded in overcoming this dilemma so often.

We also encourage you to invest in a solution that will minimize any aspect of the job search that you find so distasteful. Job search tools can do a lot to eliminate the tedious, repetitive work that drains the energy from so many job seekers. They can also serve as a means to set goals every day and stay focused, ultimately leading you to becoming an energetic, motivated job seeker.

The cost of not having any choices is too expensive to ignore and you do not want to have to pull up your stakes to move to another part of the country. This is what we are talking about when we encourage you to control your destiny. This economy has put a lot of people in an extraordinary circumstance that will call for some extraordinary discipline to weather. Simply starting your job search everyday can be the linchpin event that will lead to the job that will provide the security and happiness we are all looking for. Stay regimented in your commitment to land a job and you will truly find yourself in a position to control your destiny.

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