Katherine Burik

Exercise Your Way to Positive Energy

June 24, 2016 By Katherine Burik

I love to exercise. It makes me feel good. Yet, despite the good feelings I often skip it. I get busy and I put it off.

Just today I had some time but what did I do? I started working on my computer “for a few minutes” and several hours as well as the opportunity to exercise passed me by.

Why do we avoid doing something that makes us feel good? In the hustle and bustle of job search, we often cut corners, even corners like exercise that make us feel better.

We should make time for activities that make us stronger, especially when we are searching for a new job.

Exercise is a marvelous way to clear our minds of unnecessary clutter and distractions.

Here are some benefits of regular exercise:

Positive attitude
Burns off steam
Overall feeling of well being
More energy
Physical strength
Improved mobility
Clears your head
Longer, happier life

No one wants to work around a crabby person. In a job search especially we want to be positive and full of energy. These are plenty of reasons to fit regular exercise in your weekly schedule.

Fine you say. It is easy for you to say. How do I get regular exercise if I am not employed? I can’t afford a health club membership.

No excuse. There are plenty of websites with exercise routines and plenty of magazines at the local library with workout routines. You could go walking or running. You could walk your dog. You could climb steps in an office building. You could ride your bike instead of taking the car to the grocery store.

There are plenty of ways to get exercise if you want to make it happen. The advantages definitely outweigh any constraints you might place on yourself!

Check out these other articles on related topics:

Exercise new muscles to get different results!

What does exercise have to do with finding a job?

Are You Making Good Use Of Your Time?

June 21, 2016 By Katherine Burik

We all have only 24 hours in a day. How you use those 24 hours makes a difference, especially during a job search.

Can you say you accomplished something every day?

Are you moving the needle towards your goal?

What else could you be doing?

I worked with a candidate once who had been an athlete his entire life. An injury changed his plans. Now he was a job seeker, not a professional athlete. He struggled with how to spend his time.

As an athlete, he said he knew what he needed to do every day. He knew that he every ball he threw would not go into the basket. He knew that if he practiced, the odds increased that he would make a goal.

Why couldn’t we transfer that lifelong discipline to his job search? As soon as we started talking about the job search as a disciple that could be practiced, his face lit up and he felt more comfortable.

Here are some ideas about how to manage your time to achieve your goals:

Set goals. Each day know what you want to accomplish. Exactly what you want to accomplish is up to you. But without a goal, you won’t get anywhere.
Follow up. Maybe your goal for Tuesday is to contact five people to set up information interviews. You make the calls but only reach 2 people. You leave voice mails with the other 3 people. The next day your goal should be to follow up with the 3 people, along with anything else you want to accomplish.
Know what you want. If you are looking for a job in banking, focus on banking. Stay focused. Don’t wander all over because the truth is, if you want to work in banking you probably won’t want to work in a factory. So focus on banking and stay away from distractions. Unless you decide that your focus is changing. Then put your energy behind your new focus.
Be realistic about what you can accomplish in the day or planning period. Is it realistic to think you can make 20 calls in one day? Maybe. I couldn’t. Maybe you can. I changed my planning process a few years ago to plan for a week because I was consistently unrealistic about what I needed/could accomplish in a day.
Give yourself a break if you don’t finish absolutely everything on your list. It happens. Maybe you weren’t realistic. Put those tasks on your plan for the next day.
Plan time for yourself – exercise, relaxation, time with friends and family. You need energy that comes from recharging. Plan it in your schedule so you are sure it happens.

We developed several tools and programs specifically designed to help job seekers become more efficient and effective.

We can help you put discipline in your job search. Just contact The Interview Doctor!

Calm, Confident and Courageous – Memorial Day Thoughts

May 27, 2016 By Katherine Burik

“The bravest thing you can do when you are not brave is to profess courage and act accordingly.” – Cora Harris

Calm, Confident, and Courageous. When you say it, you feel it. You sit up straight and take a deep breath. Even if you are pretending.

Soldiers do it all the time. They have to. Who in their right minds would go into battle armed with a pointy stick that shoots bullets? They profess courage and act accordingly.

On this Memorial Weekend, take a few moments to thank a brave man or woman who served. We appreciate their courage.

You Can’t Get What You Want Till You Know What You Want..

February 5, 2016 By Katherine Burik

“You can’t get what you want until you know what you want,” a great line from a Joe Jackson song in 1984. I always liked that guy.

Job seekers often sing that tune. Dean called the other day. He is sick of working in call center hell. He can’t take one more day. He would love to work in some field that uses his first love, photography, but he is not sure exactly how to make that happen. He doesn’t know exactly what he wants so he can’t find what he wants.

Briana called too. She has a fabulous education. She kicked around for the two years since graduation working on interesting but dead end positions in non-profit and education. She is not sure what else to do to get her career started. The problem is she is not sure what she wants. No one will help her figure that out. Plenty of people will move her along once she narrows down the options.

Adam worked for a year teaching math in Dallas public schools for Teach for America. Now he has the credentials but isn’t sure that is what he wants to do for the rest of his life.

Insurance companies and financial services firms prey on folks making a transition from one thing but not sure what is the next thing. They make their jobs sound so secure and enticing. Everyone needs insurance, right? Everyone has money to invest, they tell weary job seekers. You just have to ask your friends. But most people are not suited for this kind of work. It is yet another detour for those who do not know what they want.

When you know what you want, the path is clear. Then you can say no to some things and yes to others. You know which path to take. Cliché after cliché is out there about knowing the right path to take. It is true.

If Dean wants to work in photography then why can’t he work in photography? I’ve seen his photos. He is good. How can he make a living with photography? Brainstorm with Dean for a minute:

He can open his own studio
He can work for a marketing or advertising agency
He can work in big companies that do their own photography
He can work for hotels or resorts that offer photography

I bet there are lots more ways a person can use photography. Each of these ideas is a path to follow. Researching these ideas reveals people to talk to who can add information and leads to the search. Follow several concrete leads at once. But nothing starts till you narrow down what you want to do into concrete ideas.

You can’t get what you want till you know what you want. Start there. The Interview Doctor can help put the pieces together from there.

Do It Yourself Resumes vs Having A Professional Help

January 29, 2016 By Katherine Burik

What is the value of having a professional help you create your resume?

RESULTS.

We get inquiries about our resume services all the time. Once they hear that there is a cost to creating a good resume, many people back off.

A professional costs money. My time and expertise has value.

Human resource people can be the hardest group to see this value. They think they should be able to create their own resume and marketing materials because they handle recruiting all the time in their professional lives.

Recently I connected with an old colleague with a terrific human resource background. We will call him Mark (the name has been changed to protect the innocent!). He would be perfect for an open position being sourced by another friend. So I asked him to send me his resume and I would make the introduction.

“Holy Cow”, I said to myself when I saw the resume. Four pages long, odd formatting, two different colors, different kinds of fonts and inconsistent sizing. It was really awful. I couldn’t send that resume on to the recruiter. I couldn’t take the chance that the recruiter might think I created that resume. I won’t put my reputation on the line like that for anyone.

So I called Mark and suggested his resume could be better. That is a tough call to make, especially to someone in HR. Mark didn’t take the news too well. He said the resume was created by a local outplacement firm with a big reputation. He was confident it was good.

I pointed out a few problem areas and offered to redo his resume through The Interview Doctor’s Resume rewriting services. The fee is equivalent to a few hours of work at Mark’s current salary.

If Mark paid me, he would get a professional looking resume that highlights his background to make him look great. While I was working, he would be free to work on something else. He could also use the new resume to update his LinkedIn profile. So he gets two advantages for the price of one service.

But Mark was not interested in professional help. He is responsible for recruiting. He can revise his own resume. A few days later Mark sent back another resume only slightly better than the first. He got it down to 3 pages long and the formatting is a little better. But it was still ugly and did not reflect Mark’s skills. I was still reluctant to refer that only-slightly-less-ugly resume on to the recruiter.

Mark’s story with me ended there. He was not willing to update the resume enough that I would feel comfortable passing it on to someone I know. Referring someone is a reflection of the referrer as well. Keep this in mind. A referral is part of networking and a key way to getting job interviews. You must consider the advice of others , you may need to listen more. Make it easy for people to refer you. In this case Mark was not willing to go that extra step nor listen to my professional advice.

So what is the value of using a professional to create a resume?

Professional expertise – A professional knows how the resume should look to show off your experience to its best advantage
Time – A professional saves time. While you are working on something else, the professional is working on your resume. It requires a few conversations then some feedback for editing. You could be working on something else like networking.

Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. Get the professional help you need. The Interview Doctor offers a variety of resume options to help you make the best impression.