Job Search

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.

Life Balance: The myth and reality

January 8, 2016 By Marta Goertzen

What is balance anyway? Many books have been written on the topic. Amazon offers 149 books on “Work Life Balance”. I find the topic fascinating as I watch days pass quickly and see a new generation tackle this important topic.

We all have responsibilities. At home we care for our children and eventually our parents. Our homes need care and tending. Our bodies need care and tending – eating right, exercising. We need to earn a living so we must care for our careers and daily business responsibilities.

All of this in 24 hours a day.

The question is how to make all that work into something like balance?

As a child of the 70s and an unabashed fan of Gloria Steinem, it never occurred to me to do anything but work while raising a family. My mother did it. I wanted to do it. I never planned on the divorce when my daughter was two years old but that divorce renewed my commitment to being a working mother. Somehow the choice of working or not just disappeared.

As part of an executive team for most of my working life since before my daughter was born 27 years ago, my hours were gruesome.

I changed jobs many times, mostly out of necessity after receiving difficult news. I like to tell people I have been laid off or terminated more than most people and always landed on my feet. The process of finding a new job is a balancing act in itself.

Somehow I managed to raise a strong, resourceful daughter but it took lots of help. My sister and her husband moved in for a while. I remarried and relocated to Ohio to create a solid base to support both the career and our three children from this blended relationship. The children survived and thrived. So did I.

It took lots of help. We divided the responsibilities. I can’t remember the last time I did laundry. Who has time? I figured out ways to tend the home and sneak in exercise to give priority to children and career.

I am not sure how any one person can get it all. I do know that we can get some of whatever you put your mind to. The key is organization. I am the queen of organization, although I know that I take on too much and can always get better.

For me, the key to figuring out a balance was having someone to help me hold myself accountable for the elements most important to me. Notice how I said that. I hold myself accountable to achieve the elements most important to me. Not everything. Just the most important things. To me. I can’t do everything that everyone wants me to do. Only the things that are important to me at the moment they need to be done.

Over 11 years ago I found a coach. Sherry Greenleaf helps me just by listening and asking good questions. The results come from my own efforts. What I choose to accomplish is completely up to me.

I think of the bits and pieces of life’s responsibilities as pieces of a puzzle. These responsibilities change over time. My career has been one of the primary responsibilities for a long time. For a while raising a child was another priority. Then as she grew and moved on to adulthood, my mother became a priority. Now I am in a different stage. Career is still important. My daughter is grown and on her own. My mom is a memory. Exercise and exploration take a priority now giving me more freedom than I experienced in the past.

No one can tell you what to prioritize in YOUR life or how you go about finding balance in your life. But, to me, the concept of balance is about finding ways to accomplish the few things that are important to you at the moment.

Ask yourself these important questions: What is important to you today? How will you set your priorities? How can you hold yourself accountable to what is important in your life at the moment? What tools will help you achieve your goals?

Let me know if you need help. We can help you hold yourself accountable. Sometimes that is all it takes to achieve the balance you want from your life.

Your paper resume should be consistent with your LinkedIn Profile

December 4, 2015 By Marta Goertzen

Joe called the other day for help preparing for an interview. He sent me his resume and I looked him up in LinkedIn. Was this two different people? Joe’s resume was nothing like his LinkedIn profile.

Which was the correct reflection of Joe’s experiences?

Resumes are not the same today as they were even as recently as 10 years ago. Resumes are almost a marketing piece, something you leave behind at an interview. But it is still important that this tool reflect your brand.

Your brand is the full picture of who you are. Everywhere people look they should see the same consistent brand describing you – your business cards, your resume, your LinkedIn profile. Otherwise you miss opportunities and risk leaving the wrong impression.

Remember the many ways LinkedIn is used – to get noticed, to network, and to learn. Do not delude yourself. LinkedIn is the first place employers look when they get a resume or when they meet someone while networking. When they run back to their computers or pull out their smart phones and look you up on LinkedIn what will they see?

Your LinkedIn profile is your career home base. If it doesn’t reflect who you are then you are missing opportunities to get noticed, network, and learn. This is true whether you are looking for a job or not.

The LinkedIn algorithm sends you useful information but only if it understands what you value. If your LinkedIn profile does not reflect who you really are then you could be getting all sorts of goofy information from LinkedIn.

People connect with you to share what you know. Or rather they attempt to connect with the person they see on LinkedIn. If that profile does not describe who you are and what you bring to the table then you could be missing people or getting odd requests to connect that do not make sense.

You learn by interacting with people who share your interests. If your profile does not reflect your interests and experiences then you will not connect or interact with people who can enhance your life

There are lots of reasons to have a LinkedIn profile that is consistent with your experiences. Take a few moments to create a consistent brand!

Find the Pizzazz in your Career

November 13, 2015 By Marta Goertzen

This week I have been stressing and fretting over all the items on my TO DO list. It is driving me crazy. Every felt that way?

On the flight to conduct a workshop at HRSouthwest Conference in Fort Worth TX this week I read a timely book, Decide: Work Smarter, Reduce Your Stress and Lead by Example by Steve McClatchy. Every day we make choices that either move us towards gain or away from pain. All the tasks on our To Do lists fit into one of these two categories. Interesting.

I wonder how my overwhelming TO DO list breaks down. Am I taking adequate steps to move towards gain or am I focused too much on preventing pain? Let’s take a look at how McClatchy defines his terms.

GAIN tasks are not urgent. They don’t have deadline dates usually. You can’t delegate these tasks. Gain tasks produce significant results that move your business or life forward into a direction you intend.

PREVENT PAIN tasks are urgent, everyday tasks that can really burn up time. Bad things happen when you neglect these tasks but these tasks don’t move your cause (professional or personal) forward toward any big hairy goal.

Honestly, most of the items on my TO DO list prevent pain and don’t move me forward.

Accounting and bookkeeping, LinkedIn follow-up, setting appointments and writing blogs are the work that happens behind the scenes to help me connect with my audience and measure my progress towards my goals. If I miss the deadlines sometimes bad things happen. I feel burned out and burdened by these tasks.

Behind the scenes are some really important projects that I am not getting done. For months I have been almost done with a new online training program that will move our business forward. The key here is “for months”. The training program is a game changer. Nothing bad happens if I don’t work on it but if I don’t work on it, nothing happens.

I am letting myself get distracted from the GAIN tasks by the day to day things that PREVENT PAIN. That is just not smart.

McClatchy suggests that if you want to GAIN then figure out how to clear your plate of those PREVENT PAIN tasks so you can give more time and attention to tasks that move you closer to your goal.

Wow, this new perspective can be a game changer!

We can take this analogy in another direction. Look at the way you describe your career in LinkedIn. Do you describe yourself in terms of the “expected” descriptions? We call them the “duh” tasks. Or do you focus on the times in your life when you stepped beyond to achieve significant positive results?

Take a red pencil and go into your LinkedIn profile or resume and strip out all the expected “duh” items.

Leave only the results, the evidence that you were there, the GAIN you achieved by doing the unexpected or more than the expected. This makes you unique, gives you something to talk about.

I had the chance to try this with Bruce’s resume. He included every ranking of sales results in the last 20 years, even the times his results brought his team in last. As a sales manager sales results are expected, the “duh”.

When I stripped out all those extraneous sales results we were left with the most interesting parts, the unexpected achievements that are the pizzazz in any career.