JobTabs Job Search & Resume

Dirt bag

Bernard Madoff is one of the biggest dirt bags in history.  He bilked individual investors out of their life savings.  He bilked retirement funds out of money to pay pensions.  He bilked noble charities out of every last dime they had.

I cannot imagine ever learning anything from a low life such as Bernard Madoff.  All the same, when he wanted to be someone’s investor he had no trouble getting the interview and then getting the job.  As a mentor to job seekers, it is incumbent upon me to assess how he was able to get one job offer after another.

1.  Madoff had a track record of success. Consistent returns year over year.  Granted, Madoff was not good at being an investor. The returns were all a pack of lies but in the absence of being arrested or being outed by someone who did their due diligence his track record was accepted at face value.  Does your resume reflect your success in your professional capacity?  Are you making sure that your references are attesting to your talent?  Are you mentioning those commendations you received from your superiors?

2.  Everybody knew that Bernard Madoff had the outstanding track record.  Because he blogged? No, Madoff’s returns were public and he paid on his returns as well.  Sadly, he didn’t pay from yields of prudent investments, but paid out using the money of new investors. Our message is that Madoff was visible.  Personally, I had never heard of Madoff until the scandal broke out, but in the investment community he was a superstar. Is there something you as a job seeker can be doing to make yourself more visible?  Are there articles you can contribute to magazines or online forums that can heighten your visibility as a knowledgeable professional?  Have you considered blogging in your area of expertise?

3.  He networked very well. Madoff did not win new clients with fancy ads on TV or in the newspaper.  Madoff was connected to the people who could help him advance his agenda.  He was a was a member of the Palm Beach Country Club among many others.  He hobnobbed with the rich and famous and he milked his network for all it was worth.  Are you connected to people in your area of expertise?  Are you respected in that network?  Are you offering to help others as well as asking for help?

4. He exuded confidence. Madoff had the grace and charm of of a pedigreed royal.  People wanted to be associated with him.  He smiled.  He was cool, calm, collected, and confident.  Would that describe you?  Are you crying in your beer or are you beaming with optimism because you are so jazzed about those seven jobs you applied to just yesterday?  Are you helping others feel better about themselves and encouraging them to be positive?  Are your actions and your words in sync?

5.  He did not disqualify himself. Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, yet accepted billions from investment firms, banks and otherwise prudent business people.  Wouldn’t investors with this kind of money have armies of accountants and financial analysts descending on Madoff’s firm every quarter or at least watching his every move given they had billions invested with him?  Obviously not.  Madoff did not disqualify himself from managing the resources of financial juggernauts even though he was completely illegal.  Assuming you are a law abiding, hard working professional, are you disqualifying yourself from jobs could be applying to?  Are you rationalizing as to why they will never hire you?  Are you disqualifying yourself from applying to jobs you find exciting?  Are you afraid to put your best foot forward and let them know how good you are at doing what you do?

In closing, Bernard Madoff is a good-for-nothing crook.  If he had been legal he really would have been a superstar investor.  The scrutiny that the media has put on him shows exactly how he would have attained that success.  If you are good, people know you are good, you are well networked, you exude confidence and you will not impose limitations upon yourself; you can take control of your destiny and get any job you apply for.

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, as well as by phone at 404-255-0248.

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.

Some of the best advice I could ever hope to offer any individual job seeker is not to be an individual job seeker.  By this I mean, do not engage the job search process alone.  In most every city or town of any size there is a local networking group that is helping people transition their careers or get back on their feet after losing their job.  These groups are powerful resources and can do much to send a job seeker in the right direction.  They often have guest speakers addressing many facets of the job search process.  There are people there to critique your resume and offer suggestions on what you can do to sell yourself.

Most job searching networks are free and are held at community centers or churches.  There is no need to be of a particular denomination and typically there will be no discussion of faith.  These are people helping people and it is a beautiful thing.  Even if you are trying to move across the country a local support group can help you in many ways.  Most likely, you will also meet some new friends.  The job search is a draining experience in so many ways.  When people brave harsh circumstances together, a certain authenticity comes to the surface.  People tend to be more sincere and open as to who they are and what they are up against.  It will not be a waste of your time.

Lest you believe that the networking groups are for losers, you will be amazed at the considerable number of tier one, top-notch, alpha males/alpha females, that are looking for jobs.  These people will remind you that you are not alone.  The typical job seeker will look for a job every 3-5 years.  By going to these support groups you will be assured that it is perfectly okay to be looking for a job.  You are molting professionally and when you emerge from this cocoon you will have the wings of a butterfly.

A great resource for finding Job Networking Groups in your area can be found at job-hunt.org.  job-hunt.org was founded by Susan Joyce after she was laid off from Digital Equipment Corp.  Take a gander at this resource page,

http://www.job-hunt.org/job-search-networking/job-search-networking.shtml

The job search – do not do it alone!

Can you share any other sources of job networking groups?  Please post them below.

When we moved into our house, the previous owner had these wide closet doors that wouldn’t stay shut and it drove my wife crazy.  I decided to solve the problem by installing ball catches to hold the doors in place.

Whenever I go to the hardware store, I always read the instructions of anything I need to install before I make any purchases.  It gives me the opportunity to buy any extra tools I might need and gives me a chance to make sure I am up to the task.  Picked up a Stanley ball catch and read the instructions.  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  Got it.  Took it home, whipped out my hulking, pseudo-phallic symbol of a power drill and went to work.  I always read the directions several times before I do anything, because a mistake on a home project is acutely painful – especially if there is a drill involved.

I don’t know how I did it, but I completely missed this word ‘mortise’.  I didn’t really know what it meant, but how difficult could it be?  Any step described by one word can’t be that complicated.  Step 6 was soon upon me, ‘mortise’.  I whipped out the dictionary and looked it up and still couldn’t figure it out.  Then it dawned on me.  I had to gouge out a recess in the door frame so that the strike plate would be be flush with the frame.  When the door closes, the ball in the ball catch needs a recess in the frame to hold the door shut.  I don’t like the idea of gouging anything and began to make the problem much more complicated than it really was.

“Huh?  I have to gouge a recess in the frame?!  Why didn’t they just say so?! These people were expecting me to get my wood chisels and start carving a hole in the door frame.  I’m not a carpenter! How many rows upon rows of lexicographers did it take to come up with this word – mortise!?  If they wanted me to gouge out a hole in the frame, why didn’t they just say tell me to ‘gouge out a hole in the frame?’ These corporate titans sitting behind their massive mahogany desks preying upon the everyday house husband.  These people screwed me!”

I was fuming.  Eventually, I cooled off, accepted my situation, and set out to come up with a solution.  Wound up drilling a couple shallow holes and then finishing it with a slightly deeper hole in the center.  Piece of cake.  The ball catch works beautifully and is the standard to which all persons installing ball catches should aspire.

Then the pall of the irony hit me like a ton of bricks.  The Stanley Corporation did exactly what I would have told them to do.  They skirted over the unsavory details.  They created an image of simplicity by making their instructions so trite, I would just read right through them.   If I had been reading the instructions in the store and read, “6.  Gouge or drill a recess in the frame of the door.”, I probably wouldn’t have purchased the ball catch.  I would have looked for a “simpler solution” from another company.  When I actually went about installing the ball catch the real problem was freaking out when things weren’t as straight forward as I expected.  I over-reacted, even though I had all of the tools and savvy I needed to do the job.  They did what I encourage job seekers to do every day. Downplay the details of anything that the prospective employer might find unsavory.  Bring attention to what you have accomplished in the context of what they want to hear.  Downplay everything and anything that does not pertain to what they are looking for.

This of course begs the question, “Don’t you risk running the chance that the employer will be fuming after you get hired?”  The answer is a firm and resolute, “No!”  That’s the job you want, right?  You have the experience and can attest to it, right?  How can the employer fume?  Gentle reader, when you are looking for a job you need to close the deal.  If there is any dissonance after you are hired, you need to mollify the employer’s fears by reaffirming your qualifications and then going out there and doing an over-the-top job.  In fact, if your performance is anywhere near as good as my ball catch installation you can look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with your employer!

Billy Mays didn’t write this post, but he serves as the backdrop for resourceful ways to sell yourself on the job search.

There are all kinds of subtleties at play during the process of selling.  You need look no further than the ads that abound on CNN and late night TV.   Personally, I find these ads demeaning.  The sales pitch is so overwhelming it is as if they are focusing on creating a knee jerk reaction on behalf of the user to pick up the phone and buy the product.  The most prolific seem to be these ads featuring Billy Mays, the purveyor of

• Mighty Mendit
• Mighty Putty
• HandySwitch
• Steam Buddy
• and a host of other handy dandy items.

I have studied these ads intently.

What can I glean from these ads that would help the taberatti (people who use JobTabs) land their next job?

Common to all of these sales pitches, whether it is Billy Mays or someone else, is invariably,

“This product is amazing!”
“If you order now I will double/triple the offer!”
“But wait there’s more, I will throw in this handy dandy gizmo absolutely free!”

If you think about it, these are all resourceful ways to sell yourself on the job front.  Let’s have a closer look.

This product is amazing! The message is that this is a product that delivers solutions.  There are compelling videos of people struggling without their product and then showing satisfied people who are using the product.

Let the value you impart as an excellent candidate be unmistakable.  Here is how you do this.

1.  Present yourself as a problem solver.  Much like the videos, use your resume to paint a picture of problems that were not being solved and how the company was suffering.  Then you came in and solved the problems and everybody was happy.  This is the P.A.R. (Problem – Action – Results) approach to writing your resume.

2.  Quantify the impact you had on the solution.  What percentage did sales increase?  How many dollars did you save?  You don’t have to do a business school case study to get these numbers.  Use the best resources available to you and roll with it.

3.  Sprinkle the commendations and accolades you have received from management to let the person reading your resume know that you are good at what you do.

Be sure you understand the professional demands of the position you are applying to.  There are often challenges faced in one company that have been overcome in another.  Be sure that your exposure in the field is rounded enough so as not to disqualify you from consideration.  Make an effort to research the company and find out what challenges they are up against.  The best thing you can do is put your talent in the context of the specific challenges the company is facing to the best of your ability.

If you order now, I will double the offer. The goal is to create a sense of urgency.

Don’t be afraid to create a sense of urgency.  This can be a powerful motivator for employers to give your candidacy serious consideration now.  It is important to note that this has to be done with tact.  Too urgent could disqualify your candidacy because the administrative process cannot move fast enough.  Not urgent enough, will cast doubt on how urgent all of this really is.  In your cover letter, you can mention that you are getting a great response from companies looking for your qualifications, but working at XYZ Corp. is the fit you are looking for.  Examples,

“The breadth of my hands on experience in the  field has garnered more interest from employers than I had initially anticipated given the economic downturn.  As much as I appreciate their interest, I firmly believe working at XYZ Corp would be the best fit for me.  Simply put, I have the experience to leverage the breadth of the product line to give key advantages to XYZ customers that competing firms cannot offer.  As confident as I am that I could deliver results for XYZ, I would not want any delays in the hiring process to impact my candidacy with other employers who are more forthcoming with their interest.    If we could meet this Friday . . . “

“My success at delivering results has garnered more interest from employers than I had initially anticipated given the economic downturn.  As much as I appreciate their interest, I firmly believe working at XYZ Corp would be the best fit for me.  Companies want increased sales and that is what I do best.  I would not want any delays in my candidacy for this position to be construed as ambivalence by other employers who are ready to move more quickly.    If we could meet this Friday . . . “

“My ability to think outside the box and deliver innovative solutions has garnered more interest from employers than I had anticipated given the economic downturn.  As much as I appreciate their interest, I firmly believe I can lend the most value to XYZ Corp.  While every company needs structure and deadlines to succeed, XYZ Corp has long had a reputation for fostering innovation and creativity and this is an environment where I thrive.  As confident as I am that I could have a huge impact at XYZ, I do not want to put off any employers who have made their interest in my innovation and creativity readily apparent.  If we could meet this Friday . . . “

But wait there’s more, I will throw in this handy dandy gizmo – absolutely free! The message is that if you buy this product, you will get more than what you pay for.

We are hardly suggesting that you work for half price.  We are suggesting that you stress the extra value you are bringing to the table above and beyond what they are looking for.  Remember, it is not incumbent upon the employer to draw the conclusion that you are bringing a lot to the table.  For example, if you have a Masters Degree in Management don’t count on your employer saying, “Hey, this candidate has a Master’s degree.  This will provide a better foundation for her judgement.” It is incumbent upon you, the job seeker, to tie the extra value you are bringing to the table with what they are looking for.  Sell it. For example, in your cover letter for a Product Manager position you can say something like,

“My immersion in Boston University’s  M.S. in Management program allowed me to understand organizational behavior and the signposts to look for as a product line evolves.  In addition to leading the product team more prudently, I will be set able to set realistic goals as well as avoid pitfalls that have beset lesser companies.”

In closing, getting a job is going to require some level of salesmanship.  While we readily discourage the use of any knee-jerk, impulse buy sales tactics, there are some subtleties in this approach that you can use to improve your candidacy for the jobs you apply to.  Give your candidacy an edge and sell yourself.  Did I miss any other part of the sales pitch?  Let me know and I will fill in the gaps!