Job Search

Leave Standard Information Off Your Resume And Focus On Accomplishments

May 10, 2013 By Katherine Burik

At its most fundamental level, every job has a specific list of tasks that must be accomplished. This is the reason the job exists.

You are not defined by the tasks. You are defined by your accomplishments. You accomplishments are what make you stand out from the crowd.

As a regular reader of profiles and resumes, I don’t care about the tasks. I kind of know the basic tasks for most jobs out there.

Sales managers manager territories, people and budgets
Administrative assistants keep stuff organized
Engineers design stuff
Vice Presidents manage people, concepts, and budgets

I want to know what makes you different. What did you accomplish beyond the basic tasks. I suspect you did more than just breathe and take up space. That is what I want to know.

First figure out what you are proud of. What did you do that make other people say, “WOW”? These stories of accomplishments belong in your toolbox for interviews. These stories make you unique.

Now write your resume. List the company, job title, and maybe one sentence about the basic role. Then add bullets describing the things you are most proud of.

Sales managers: What percentage did you achieve compared to your budget? Share the huge sale you landed or the award you got for huge sales that year.
Admiinsitrative Assistants: What special project did you work on? How many people did you keep organized?
Engineers: Tell me about the new installation or new product you designed. How well did that new widget do in the market place? Tell me about the customer feedback or sales results or how much you saved in a LEAN or Six Sigma project.
Vice Presidents: Tell me about how well your department performed compared to plan or the way you redesigned your function to operate more effectively.

I want to know what you can contribute to business based on what you accomplished in your last job. Accomplishments are the key!!

How can College Graduates Avoid the Minimum-Wage Trap?

April 2, 2013 By Katherine Burik

An interesting article points out that 240,000 college graduates had minimum-wage jobs last year. What a shame. How can that be? I decided to look into this phenomenon.

I needed a pool to consider. I have had recent college grads as clients at The Interview Doctor who are unemployed and working at minimum wage. I also checked in with my 24 year old college graduate daughter for an informal assessment of her friends.

Marissa has worked steadily since her graduation in her chosen profession. Most of her friends are also working in their chosen professions as teachers, doctors, college professors, political operatives (like Marissa), and various business specialties. Some of her friends have gone to graduate school.

Two factors seem to separate recent college graduates who are fully employed in their chosen profession and those under employed or working at low wages: Networking and knowing exactly what you want.

Networking is critical. In Marissa’s circle of political operatives the folks who called everyone they know and leaned on connections with persistence are currently working at good jobs.

She and her friends all finished the last election cycle at the same time at the end of November. Marissa was on the phone constantly and landed a great job in Washington DC. Tia called her old bosses repeatedly and also found a good job in DC a few weeks later. Rob and Andrew have done no networking and are still unemployed, living on friends’ couches. They will get a job eventually but picking up the phone and making some calls will speed things up.

Know exactly what you want. Marissa and her friends know exactly what they want. They don’t just work in politics. They do very specific jobs with specific titles that are valued by specific people and organizations. This is critical.

No one can help you with this. You must say exactly what you want and you must say it loud and confidently.

I had an inquiry from a young woman with a marvelous educational background. She just finished an assignment with AmeriCorps after college and decided she wanted to work in non-profit. That is not enough. Until she decides exactly what kind of job in non-profit she wants and why, she will probably not find a job. How can she network? Who will she call and what will she say when she calls? Her resume and LinkedIn profiles will be generic and not attract any attention.

Something is missing. Notice I did not talk about the kind of degree these folks have? I do not think degree matters that much. Why does an engineer have an easier time finding a job? A small portion of the reason is that engineers are always needed in American business. A larger part of it is that an engineer college graduate already knows exactly that they want to do. They are an engineer. More than that, they are a specific kind of engineer whose education means they can work in a very specific kind of job.

Knowing what you want and networking to get it trumps degree any day.

Why Should I Care ‘Who Will Be My New Boss?’

February 19, 2013 By Marta Goertzen

In deciding whether a job offer is right for you, many strategic career-minded people remember to consider, (a) Are there promotional opportunities within a company? ‘Can I be promoted within two-three years?’ ‘Is this a company with a good reputation, well-run, growing, and where people seem to move up regularly?’

(b) Is there a learning environment where I can pick up a marketable skill through challenging work assignments and the training offered? Do they offer formal technical training programs to new staff? Are teaching webinars part of the way people are developed? Does this company do mentoring programming? Is the performance feedback helpful and regular?

(c) And, is work-life balance part of the deal? Can I have a life? Will I be able to get time off periodically? Will there be times to slow down after a hurry-up project push? And if I have a family, will that be okay, or will I be penalized for it?

All good questions. A couple of ‘ah-hah moments’ for me in the last 48 hours reminded me that ‘who will be my new boss?’ may be THE question to ask in any job change. If the person-in-charge gets what you bring to the table, believes in you, and trusts you from the beginning, and, btw, most likely approaches work in a manner similar to your own, promotional opportunities will be there; a good learning environment derives from a strong mentor-boss, and work-life balance can be achieved when you have a good boss-relationship from the beginning. So if you want a position with the potential of really making a difference, loving what you do, and building a nice career, ask yourself, who will be my new boss?

I Want This Job Because…

February 15, 2013 By Katherine Burik

My father loved sleight of hand. I loved it when he pulled quarters out of my ears. It tickled. I always wondered how that quarter got up there in the first place!

Of course we all know I don’t have quarters in my ears, at least not lately. My dad practiced all the time to make the trick appear seamless. He was always moving coins between his fingers.

It got me thinking about the relationship between what you want and what you should have. I wanted to be able to do that trick but I never got the hang of it. Wanting something does not automatically lead to getting what you want.

This is true in the business world too. You might have business goals but what have you done to make those goals reality?

Kelley works is an Assistant Store Manager. She loves her job and wants to be promoted to Store Manager. She wants it really bad. She wants it so bad she is willing to go to another company to get the promotion she wants. She is frustrated with her lack of response from management.

The big question Kelley needs to ask herself is what has she done to warrant the promotion?

Kelley’s complaint is not unusual. We have heard this before. Lack of recognition by management is a leading cause of employee discontent. Many employees leave their jobs because management ignores performance.

Here are some tips to increase the chance you get what you want:

Make sure your bosses know what you want

Do what you say you will do – be reliable

Have accomplishments you can point to. Make sure management is aware of your accomplishments.

Dress and behave like the folks who already have that job. Make it obvious that you will fit into the role.

Take on extra work or additional projects to display your abilities to influencial people who can help your career.

Become indispensable but not so valuable that your managers never want to promote you to another position

Train a replacement. Sometimes really valuable people are not promoted because no one is available to take their place.

Find a mentor among influential people in management so you have someone who can lobby for you.

If all else fails, start looking for a position with a company that will value what you bring. You still have to be able to describe what you want and why you should get it. No one will give you a promotion just because you want it, or even if you deserve it.

You will get the position you want only when you can describe succinctly what you want and why you should have it.

The Interview Doctor can help you

Inaugurate a New You…Today!

January 22, 2013 By Katherine Burik

It is very cool to me that every four years in the United States, we let go of the old and embrace the new. Let go of your political affiliations for a moment and take that in. Yesterday marked the end of one era and the beginning of another. Analysts have been providing us with their views of this experience for the last few weeks. What went well in the last four years? What went badly? What will he do in the next four years? How will he approach this crisis or that?

I call it a do-over. Pass go and collect $200. It is better than a New Year’s Resolution.

I love do-overs. An opportunity to try again to get it right, whatever “it” is in your world. I have been giving this a lot of thought.

We hold on to angst and guilt over mistakes made. Angst and guilt show in our face if we let it. A do-over offers the chance to let go of that angst and move on. You can be a new person in 2013, the person you have always wanted to be. You can define yourself in a new way, in a way that makes you feel better about yourself and offers your audience a new view of the new you.

It starts with you. How will you define yourself in 2013? Take the old material and rework it in a way that defines you better for the New You. Give yourself a new start.

The people you meet make impressions of you based on the information you send out. You are actually defining yourself in a mirror based on the “stuff” you send out. If you send out “stuff” composed of bad decisions and awkward moments from the past, then that is the vision that people will have of you.

It is like a mirror. Right now I want you to see me as a skilled, competent professional with knowledge and skills that can help you so much that you will buy my services. Actually I am in my jammies with bed-head writing at a messy desk in the semi-dark dawn badly in need of a shower. You would never know my true state if I didn’t tell you. I hide it so you get the best impression of me, the impression of me I want you to have.

The President of the United States, on the occasion of his inauguration, probably feels messy and badly in need of a shower in his head. He faces many difficult challenges in the next four year. He might have regrets and concerns mixed in with a little confidence about his accomplishments in the past four year. But today he projects a clean, shiny and proud image, confidently facing the future with lots of fans behind him. I admire his air of confidence. I want to go with him.

That can be you. What are you projecting? When I talk with you, what impression will I get about your view of your future? Are you confident or weighted down by past mistakes? Will I believe you have lots of fans behind you?

Don’t allow anyone to see your messy bed-head. That is your business. Only send out positive confident vibes. That is all I want to see from you today!