We will all deliver our pitch hundreds of times during a job search and networking. The question is whether it’s effective to get someone to commit to taking action on your behalf. After hearing hundreds and giving hundreds of pitches, here’s my take: The best pitch is one that is understood.
The most effective pitches I’ve understood are as follows:
• Short
• Uses simple language (or the language of experience)
• Emphasizes the ‘promise’ of what you can deliver to the hiring company
• No more than three key points, so I can remember in my head
Unless you are a clever copywriter, I’d pass on trying to craft a snappy tag line to describe yourself. I’ve only heard one or two that did not make me want to roll my eyes. All these lines were well-meaning attempts to make you memorable, but it’s usually just dead air.
Here’s what makes you’re the ‘message’ in your pitch truly memorable
• You have practiced and can deliver it in a confident voice
• Targeted the pitch to what the listener will “hear”
A pitch is the starting point to get the other person to commit to act on your behalf (provide contacts, move you along in the interview process, etc.) If your pitch piques their interest, then they will want to learn more about you. If it does not, then no need to pile on the details of your background, as it will be dead air as well. This is why you want to make sure you include the information that will interest the listener
You are seeking different actions from each contact to move you toward the hiring manager – either to “Connect” to an insider, “Learn” about the company or “Influence” the hiring manager. (Please see “Roadmap to the Hiring Manager”). To motivate them to learn more, may require a slightly different pitch that includes information that will be important to them.
Always ask yourself “What will they want to ‘hear’ to trigger them to take action?” For example, if I want my contact to introduce to a company, I may want to pitch my industry knowledge to help them feel more comfortable.
Here are a couple of ways to test your pitch effectiveness:
The Elevator Test: Does your ‘elevator pitch’ require a 150 story building to get through it? If so, time to shorten it.
The Independent Observer: After giving your pitch, ask the person to repeat the top 2-3 items they remember. If it does not match your 2-3, then shorten your pitch.
The Language Test: Write out your pitch. Circle any words that you don’t use in everyday conversation (e.g. evangelist, etc.) if you have more than one, then it’s too many. Try this “Buzzword Bingo” at LurkerTech.com - okay, you won’t use all these terms, but a good starting place for overused words.
Repeat Their Expectation: What would you expect from someone in your role (e.g. ability to work with clients, specific technical skill, etc.)? If you have held a similar role, then they would expect you possess those skills. Don’t burn time repeating. Focus on what you can DO with those skills.
Lastly, I will borrow a recommendation from Guy Kawasaki’s “Art of the Start” chapter called “The Art of Pitching”: Rewrite from scratch. His advice is sound, because we puts parts from different pitches and try to incorporate feedback, only to end up with what Guy often sees “a Jeep with a Chevrolet engine”.
Good luck today.
Mark
www.candidateschair.com – Tools and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
Is Your Pitch Motivating Action?
Friday 24 December 2010Good News for Candidates - Hope Lives on a Small Diet
Sunday 5 December 2010Your secret weapon in search is a strong psyche. It’s your resume or contact that gets you in the door; it’s the strong psyche that closes the sale and lands you the role.
The resumes from people in your profession will likely read very similar. Several candidates will be pulled out because they show the ‘promise’ of succeeding within the role. When you speak to the company, it’s your strong psyche that truly brings the differences between you and the other candidates to life.
A strong psyche gives you confidence, poise and the ability to look anyone in the eyes when you answer or ask a question. Sitting across the table as the interviewer or networking contact, a strong psyche is almost tangible, as though that person has a shield in front of themselves and no matter what you toss at them – nothing is going to make them stray.
The strong psyche is driven by the hope that you will see an office, cubicle, nametag, or paycheck with your name on it – or whatever the symbol you think of when being employed. It’s that vision that gives you the hope. Anyone has let their hope dip will tell you it’s like living in slow motion.
Here’s the good thing about hope, it can live on a small diet. Hope is driven by the small events of a day or week, not only major events.
This is good because most of us don’t experience many major events or opportunities that get us ‘discovered’ to be immediately hired. Sure it happens to people, but you cannot count on it – sort of like that winning lottery ticket (I could have sworn the Powerball was going to be ‘10’ this week!)
Keep track of the small positive events in your search, the act of keeping track of these actions helps build your hope as well by reminding you of what is going well.
For example, any action that moves you closer to the hiring manager, information you discover that helps match your resume to a company, holding a great networking meeting, getting useful or positive feedback on your experience, finding someone who will connect you to a highly-desired networking contact, shortening your pitch or resume without losing any potency, etc.
Here’s the other good thing about hope. Whatever hope you give to someone will increase yours by an equal share.
Good luck today.
Mark
www.candidateschair.com – Tools and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
Roadmap to the Hiring Manager
Saturday 27 November 2010We all want to get to in front of the hiring manager, both in reputation (or brand) and in person. Although getting there can be a long march, it’s even longer without a roadmap!
Here’s another one from the “Chronicle of My Job Search Mistakes”: By not thinking about their level of relationship to the hiring manager, I was not asking my contacts for the right help.
I was networking, but not interviewing, so there had to be something missing. When a networking contact failed to show up a meeting, I sketched out a roadmap to the hiring manager (thanks for the napkin Caribou Coffee!).
Based upon a contact’s level of relationship to the hiring manager, I determined to ask them for help in one of three areas: Connect, Learn or Influence.
Connect: People who have limited information about the company or hiring managers, but can make introductions to others who are inside the firm, understand the firm, or have a relationship with the hiring manager.
Learn: People who have a good working knowledge of the business, who could teach me about the culture, business model, view of the department where I want to work, and hiring practices. They can make connections to people with influence with the hiring manager.
Influence: People who are close to the hiring manager and can carry the message of how I can serve the company to the hiring manager.
Ranking of contacts:
I considered two factors. The first was knowledge of the company. The second was their strength of relationship to hiring manager.
A company insider who does not know the hiring manager, is great to learn from but has little direct influence. The same goes for service providers who work in the hiring manager area or former employees of the firm.
An outsider who is a good friend with the hiring manager will not have a strong working knowledge of the company, which limits their ability to match you against the current needs of the firm. This is why they behind the hiring manager’s peer, in terms of influence. My highest ranking goes to the person who manages the hiring manager.
Learn versus Influence:
Do you need both? Yes. Meet with “Learn” contacts first, so you can determine if the company/role is a proper fit and then get ideas on how to fine tune your pitch.
Where to start:
Ask for any type of connection, but the priority of contacting them would be learning before influencing.
Again, the roadmap to the hiring manager will be unique, but you will still connect, learn and influence – if you understand where each networking contact fits, you are more likely to get a better result.
Good luck today.
Mark
www.candidateschair.com – Tools and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
Arguments for Hiring Someone in Job Transition – Skills You Will Not Find on a Resume
Wednesday 3 November 2010If you were to change Newton’s third law of motion, which states “To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction”, to fit job transition it will sound like this: “To every job search experience there is always an equal learning you can use again.”
After meeting 250+ candidates and my own transitions, I have seen traits and skills that are learned in job search. A candidate may not put these skills on a resume, but they a huge benefit to the hiring company.
1 – Eager to Work: Businesses always want to find a ‘motivated’ employee. Knock. Knock. We’re here.
2 – Ability to Network: It’s more than learning networking techniques like LinkedIn, but the willingness to build to reach out to others and knowledge of how to work with others.
3 – Value of Network to Business: A network is not just for finding a job. It is a wickedly powerful tool to find and connect to clients, vendors, investors, candidates and advice, often with a national reach.
4– Communication Skill: Besides developing an effective pitch, it’s also delivering it in multiple forms: in person, e-mail, blogs, Twitter, resumes, etc. Most important, candidates know how to keep it short.
5– Broadened view of business/Awareness of trends: When else in your career will you just focus on meeting so many people, seeing so many businesses and learning about the market.
6 – Understanding of their skills: The virtually continuous feedback stream from networking and interviews, gives a sharp view of skills, including those which are stronger than a candidate may think.
7– Open to new ideas: Search forces a candidate to think differently about a career path, how to find answers, what skills to use and living in new financial world… and they successfully lived through it.
8 – Not afraid of risk: How often do we complain of people not willing to take a bit of risk? Candidates try new ideas almost daily with their most precious resource: themselves.
9 – Dig up the Answer: No roadmap on how it should get done. No problem. Candidates get creative to find connections, get inside companies, learn the language and get to know who will interview you.
10 – Ability to deal with adversity: Search is a war of attrition between what’s it like out there a Candidate’s psyche. Unlike work, everything is personal, which makes every defeat that much tougher.
11– Constraints inspire innovation: No corporate support, limited finances and less than welcoming marketplace. Candidates are not going to quit, so they make constraints a source of innovation.
12 – Local community contacts: Most networking is done locally and these are great for working in the community for non-profits and corporate awareness.
People currently employed can also see these items, but there is a greater frequency and heightened awareness when in search that cements these traits into a candidate. Of course, no two candidates will have the same level of these traits – but they will be there (and many others as well!).
Job search always gets a bad rap, so we all tend to hide our efforts in job search – then promote how it’s really has improved us and what we can bring to a company.
Good luck today.
Mark
www.candidateschair.com – Tools and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
Job Search: Take Two
Monday 1 November 2010The following is a guest post from Dave Opton the founder of ExecuNet.com – he and his team have been providing amazing insight into career management and networking since 1988 – so he’s done a few laps around the track! Dave was gracious enough to agree to write a post for CandidatesChair.com. Many thanks Dave! - Mark Richards.
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Ever since I can remember, there has been a “factoid” making its way around the career management world about how long someone should plan their job search will take. What I can’t recall and never remember seeing is the source from which this “factoid” came. In any event if you are in a job search, you have probably heard it too. It goes something like: You should plan your search to take about 1 month for every $10,000 you seek in salary.
I haven’t the slightest idea nor have I ever seen statistics that indicate whether this rule of thumb is right, wrong or anything in between, and I have been roaming around the career management space since (dare I say it?) 1961.
That said, in talking with ExecuNet members, this is a subject that comes up with great frequency. Certainly not surprising, as most executives tend to be more type A’s than B’s and as such focus on objectives to be reached within a specific timeframe and get pretty impatient if and when it doesn’t look like that is happening. In addition, as leaders, they are used to being in control (more or less), and if things are not going the way they want them to and fast enough, they can make the needed changes.
In truth, I believe the foregoing is a major reason why we all find the search process so frustrating. There is only so much of it we really can control, and a great deal of it that we can’t. When you are “action oriented” and you feel you are in a situation when you can’t “make things happen,” to say it is frustrating doesn’t do it justice.
Also, how much time a job search is going to take is also one of those questions where I am not sure that an actuary could really give anyone a meaningful answer. There are so many variables involved, such as geography, age, function, industry segment, compensation needs, and the economy just to name a few.
Armed with the foregoing, hopefully you can understand why it is when someone asks me to guesstimate a timeline that I try to say this is one of those questions where “the answer is, there is no answer.” But of course, most people think that this is just a cop-out on my part and ask for a number anyway.
At that point I am likely to say something along the lines of, “Well,” and using my own personal experience as a starting point, “I can tell you that whatever length of time you think it will take, you are probably underestimating it significantly. It is kind of like when your spouse says they are going to do some redecorating and they estimate the cost at $X and as a seasoned pro you immediately make a mental note that it is much more likely to be at least $2X+.”
While we can all try to smile at our spouse’s budget estimates, translating that to a job search isn’t so funny. It is, however, very important in this sense: Part of trying to manage your way through a process as frustrating as a job search is to set realistic expectations. For without them, people tend to set goals that reality will make it very hard to attain, and when they are not attained, they feel it is somehow a sign that there is something seriously lacking in themselves when, of course, that is not the case at all. Easy to say but much harder to internalize.
I talk with members almost daily whose searches have been going for several months and in many cases more than a year, and aside from looking for ideas on handling the frustration, they also want some ideas on what they can do to try and re-energize the quest.
There is a lot that could be said on this subject and even more that’s been written, but for whatever it’s worth, here are a couple of thoughts for those who might be in this situation:
• Keep in mind that this is essentially a sales process, and as such, do what companies do if a product they have introduced to the market is not producing the results they expected – repackage it. As a candidate, that could mean a résumé makeover, tuning up your phone and/or in-person interviewing skills, making sure you are doing really thorough research in terms of target companies, and certainly working harder to expand your personal and professional networks.
• Make sure that because things have gone much longer than you wanted them to that you don’t fall into the trap of locking yourself in your home office and spending your days “clicking and praying.” It is counterproductive both strategically and emotionally.
• Get out, about and involved, both online and especially offline. Relationships can start online, but trust, which is the tipping point in personal referrals, comes much more often from face-to-face relationships built over time. If you are not already actively involved in at least one professional organization and one civic organization, do so. Keeping yourself intellectually “tuned in” is really important in terms of both attitude and energy, both of which are critical in terms of how others react to you.
• Since most people get jobs as the result of a linkage process (i.e. networking), everything you can do to give yourself the opportunity to create those links is very much worth the time and effort. If you are a member of ExecuNet, you have long heard us write and talk about effective networking being built on a foundation and attitude of “giving, not getting.” Approaching both people and/or events with the idea that you’re there as a resource to others does a lot to get your focus on the right stuff.
• If you are someone who has trouble doing some or all of this revamping yourself, you might consider getting an executive coach to help. It is certainly nothing to be ashamed of and from an accountability and structure perspective can be very helpful in getting things back on track. At ExecuNet, members frequently ask our help in finding such a resource, and we are happy to refer them.
And don’t ever forget what every salesperson will tell you: every “no” is simply one step closer to “yes.”
Dave Opton, Founder
ExecuNet
Blog: Six Figure Learnings
www.execunet.com
Twitter: @Oppy
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
We Need YOU!
Friday 22 October 2010As you may have heard by now, we are busy working away on our brand new community site, TwitJobs Opportunity Community (due for launch in November 2010).
TwitJobs incredible success would not have been possible without everyone being involved and so willing to help other people find work, with our unique search engine gathering jobs and content from 1000's of job sites all over the world.
How could we make our community better? By asking you what you want!
Please feel free to share services you like, suggest new services, inspire us, help us, get involved and together, we'll make the best possible community that we can!
Just to give you an idea, I've listed some of the services that will be available from launch...
Twitter/Facebook login (login directly using your facebook or twitter account)
Forums/Chat/Blogs/Discussion Areas
Multi Language
Employer/Recruiter area
Groups and sub groups
Events section
Plus (obviously) a whole lot more - but we'd love for you to tell us what you think, and what you'd like to see - also, feel free to expand on any of the current features above.
Also...you can sign up to our beta (launching November 2010) by clicking here -> http://twtjbs.net/botRdX
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
Rewrite Your Pitch with the Most Used Skill from Your Work
Thursday 21 October 2010If there was a skill I admired watching, it was a colleague take a product idea and strip out the features, functions, etc. until they got down to what was most valuable to our customers. The items removed were good ideas; but they cluttered up a client’s path to what they really needed.
This is an example of the most used, though unrecognized, skill from your work: Understanding what’s relevant.
Think about it for a minute. How many times did you look at projects, new products, task lists, presentations, etc. and remove the items that got in the way of what needed to be done or were out of order? My guess is that it was a daily task and you were probably pretty good at it – because it’s the engine behind making things happen.
Now how can this skill help your pitch?
I’ve heard enough pitches (including my own); to know that they become muddled because we don’t want to leave anything out and then start to incorporate ideas from others. Each point is valid, but when all together, it’s less than a clear statement to the reader of what’s most important – no matter how many times we reorder, bold, change font or italicize. More data = Less information.
A good pitch is like your favorite website. It was easy to figure out what the site does, the features you want are logical to use, and it’s easy to navigate. Because the designers did not overwhelm you, you’re hooked. For your pitch: Provide the most relevant information in a simple form. Then you’ll hook them to want to learn more. Less data = More Enticing Information.
Okay, so how do get there?
To start, create four lists to summarize your last few roles. Just write down everything that comes to mind, don’t worry about editing it.
List One: Work situations you faced (big shifts in market, competitive change, new product launches, merger, international markets, etc.)
List Two: Outcomes achieved
List Three: Skills regularly used, new skills learned or improved
List Four: Lessons and Mistakes
Next, imagine you had to hire someone to replace you. Scan each list and then circle the three most important items from each one – what you would want to see on their resume. Just put your “what’s relevant” skill into action.
The end result is your pitch: What situations you can handle, the proof of your success, the best skills you bring and how you apply them.
One last thought, I like to start with the situations and accomplishments, because people don’t ask for “10 years of experience”, they ask for “Someone who can handle sales in 10 states”.
Good luck today.
Mark
www.candidateschair.com – Tools and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
How many networking meetings should I have each week?
Wednesday 20 October 2010If you are in search, you have asked this question. The responses I received ranged between five to thirty meetings a week. My initial thought was “That’s quite range”, but I realized these answers represent two schools of thought for networking: “Specific Focus” versus “Gaining Exposure”.
Specific Focus: Meetings with a high probability of moving you toward a new job.
One: Meet with a potential hiring manager – may not be an opening, but a firm where you want to work
Two: Meet company insider to gain insight on a company to learn how to get into the company, tailor your application and key items to include on your resume
Three: Meet company insiders after applying for a role to build your ‘brand’ inside the company
Four: Meet with an advocate who can pitch you inside a company directly to the hiring manager
Time required: 5-6 hours a meeting – schedule, in depth preparation (research, developing questions, etc.), travel, meet and follow-up
Gaining Exposure: Meetings which build your presence or ‘brand’ within the market.
Because most people do not know of an immediate opening, these meetings accomplish the following:
One: Increase the number of people who know what role you seek and where you want to work
Two: Increase the size of your primary and secondary network – great for finding future connections or people that you can connect with others in your network
Three: Help make connections into targeted companies, specific people or certain types of people (e.g. marketing in software firms).
Time required: 3-4 hours a meeting – prepare, travel time, meet and follow-up. If you have meetings with very similar connections, it may be faster.
How many meetings a week?
You need to start by dividing your week into three parts: Business development, Maintaining contacts and New Contacts. In a 40 hour week, about 10 -15 hours are spent on business development (finding who to meet, reaching out to new contacts, follow-up on open invitations to meet) and maintaining contacts. (updates to network, making introductions, or other activities to continue to build the relationship).
With the remaining 25-30 hours, assuming you do not have any interviews in the week, the number of meetings depends upon the type.
How can you get 30 meetings in a week?
The number sound intriguing so how can you get it done? It’s really a combination of the following: A) They have to be all ‘Exposure’ meetings. B) Many are by phone call – to eliminate travel. C) Keep several meetings to ½ hour in length D) Reduce time spent on business development.
Using the phone and limiting time (especially when you can get more) will likely reduce your effectiveness. It makes it harder to establish an initial relationship, due to less time, level of attention, and ability to make an emotional connection.
The greatest number of meetings I had in a week was 25. All were face-to-face and I got a ton of new connections. However, by Friday, I was exhausted and probably less effective in making my pitch and I did not do any business development – which resulted in fewer meetings in the upcoming weeks. Early in your search, you will have more ‘exposure’ meetings, so you should expect to do more meetings.
The best number to focus on?
In my first search, I made the mistake to get fixated on a specific number of networking meetings. I should have been only fixated on the results: The number of positions discovering and opportunities to meet with people making hiring decisions (whether or not there is a current role). I know that this sounds like a no-brainer, but in the depths of networking, it’s easy to get focused on the means, not the end.
Good luck today.
Mark
www.candidateschair.com – Tools and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
Networking Events - Is there a Buyer?
Thursday 14 October 2010Your pitch needs a buyer.
Most of us could attend a ‘networking’ event daily that is filled with people that could become new contacts. The question becomes whether or not you can turn those contacts into meaningful action after the event.
My enlightenment regarding networking meetings came from a discussion with a colleague regarding options for our event marketing budget. He would accept or reject the idea based upon whether or not the people attending the event were in the mindset to buy the product we offered.
He used the example of a sporting event where a local bank sets up a table. For the bank there are loads of potential customers. But most people don’t stop. Why? They came to watch the match, not talk about their banking needs – so they are not thinking, or buying, banking services.
Correction: Your pitch needs a motivated buyer.
Let’s go back to networking meetings. Before you decide to go, understand the purpose of the event and why people are attending – this will help you determine if there will be ‘motivated buyers’ in the crowd. Leaving aside meetings targeted at those seeking new opportunities, here’s my ranking of the different types of networking events.
HIGH: Social events – These are the most casual and have the greatest amount of networking time, so people are openly mingling and moving about. If it’s associated with profession/industry group, get someone to escort you around to help break into the small groups in conversation.
MEDIUM: Profession/Industry Meetings – If the meeting is a lunch/dinner affair, there is networking time prior to the meal (while people check in). Attendees are there to visit with their friends and listen to the speaker. IF YOU GO: Same as social events, get a well-known member to escort you and make introductions – don’t leave their side, they are your credentials.
MEDIUM: Conferences – If it’s a conference that brings together different people to connect (say small companies with investors, companies with vendors), if you can help facilitate the type of connections being sought, then by all means attend.
LOW: Professional Development Sessions – There is limited time to network and the sessions present more than can fit in your head, so people are not in the mindset to effectively take in your pitch. You might get to know a few people at your table, so if the topic is of interest, you should attend. If not, spend your networking time elsewhere.
LOWEST: Breakfast events – These are usually the least productive. People show up right before they start, eat, listen to the speaker (while not checking their smartphone) and then bolt for the exit to get to the office.
Before you attend any event:
First, ask a few other candidates who have attended how effective these meetings were in getting them closer to the decision maker. Their answers may either confirm or be very different than my ranking above, so it’s easy and effective due diligence.
Second, figure out who you know will be in attendance and contact them in advance. The more people that know you’re coming in, the higher likelihood you should know even more people on the way out.
Remember your network has great value, make sure you know how to best use it for each event.
Good luck today.
Mark
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
Taking My Own Advice … Almost
Thursday 7 October 2010Now that I’m back into search mode again, I am reading my own material.
I can recall the events and meetings with fellow candidate that served as the source for every post and tool. What stands out for each is either discovering a more practical method for search or how to improve our expectations.
Getting back into search has helped me remember why I gave the guideline to use ideas on the CandidatesChair as a starting place, even though they are all based on real-life experiences.
As much as candidates want to be seen as individuals, the same is true for networking contacts, hiring manager, recruiter, etc., everyone comes with their own set of circumstances.
Before you deliver a pitch, hit send, etc. – take a moment and ask three questions about the person you are addressing.
ONE: How many times will they receive a similar message/pitch?
TWO: What is important to me to know about this candidate?
THREE: How well do they know you?
Let’s use some live ammunition from my current search: My e-mail template for setting up a networking meeting (See “Tools You’ll Need”). I can use the template word for word and know it works pretty darn well – it can work better.
For questions one and two, it’s as simple as adding an extra sentence can cement the connection (e.g. same college, profession, company), establish credibility in area (e.g. specific experience addressing one of their needs), or increase their desire to network with you (e.g. people in your network of interest to them).
For the third question, I may use other means to deliver the message than e-mail, to help boost the level of connection or jog their memory. I’ll use LinkedIn, College Alumni message board, ExecuNet, or with a forwarded article of interest.
The lesson I have relearned is that the advice and tools give you a jump start in creating a message. Asking myself these three questions helps me make it more effective.
Good luck today.
Mark
www.candidateschair.com – Tools and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
Redefining “Success” During Job Search
Tuesday 21 September 2010During my first job search I equated success to landing a new position. It seemed a reasonable position, in that it’s what I was trying to accomplish.
Before continuing to read, how have you defined success in your job search?
As my search carried on, I never seemed to have a sense of satisfaction. When I was working, I gained satisfaction from completed items or witnessed success. But it took a meeting with a colleague to help me realize that I did not feel the same in search simply because of my definition of success.
A friend of mine, Jim Rasmussen, who has spent his career in Sales and Sales coaching, clued me into the mindset of a Rainmaker. While ultimately judged on completing the sale, the Rainmaker knows the sales cycle can be long – so they look at the accomplishments that get them closer to a decision as victories.
This viewpoint is important to maintaining your best work as the sales process can be long, tedious, filled with stalls and capricious behavior of the corporate buyers. (Feel familiar my fellow job seekers?)
Jim’s lesson was that these little victories add up over time and celebrating these victories is important to keeping your psyche strong. Once I adopted my new definition of ‘success’, I got greater satisfaction in networking and job search.
Professional sales folks have a variety of tools to track their success, so I tried to figure out how to ‘track’ my search. I searched around for a simple solution and found the Daily Point System devised by Jeffrey Fox for his book “How to Become a Rainmaker”. I made a few adaptations for search and sent a copy to Jeffrey and asked if could share it – thankfully he agreed.
The goal of the point system is time management and to help focus your networking on those that move you closer to a decision maker. After using it for about three weeks, I found my successes were more rapid – simply because I was networking with the appropriate people. I was doing the same amount of networking; I just got more out of it.
Another practice I adopted was every Friday to write down three successes I had during the week. I kept a running list and it served a good boost to the psyche as I added to the list.
To see Jim’s profile or the “Daily Point System”, please see the links below.
Good luck today!
Mark
Jim’s profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimras/
Daily Point System: http://candidateschair.com/tools/ - See Tool #11.
www.candidateschair.com – Tools and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
View from CandidatesChair.com – Useful Job Search Sites
Thursday 16 September 2010There are loads of sites out there related to job search, here’s a few that I frequently recommend to others (in alphabetical order, not priority). I like these sites for both their intent and content.
http://www.alisondoyle.typepad.com/
• Alison has been writing about job search for a long time and offers some great insight.
http://www.back-2-work.com/
• Resources provided by people just trying to help people in transition
http://www.businesscard2.com/
• Creates a virtual business card that can sit ‘above’ all of your social networks – allows you to attach
documents (resumes, references, proof of work, etc.).
http://www.careerrocketeer.com/
• This blog has great content - but also some excellent lists on who to follow on Twitter, etc.
http://www.careersuccessradio.com/
• More proof that networking is an international exercise - AnneMarie Cross and Keith Keller are career coaches from Australia. They have an amazing set of interviews on the site.
http://www.jobangels.org/
• This is a grass-roots organization where volunteer ‘angels’ try to help someone in transition
http://www.jobtalkamerica.com/
• Sure it says ‘America’ – but it offers great content for job search that will work anywhere!
http://www.job-hunt.org/
• 15,000 links to job search related sites. When it comes to finding items related to job search – you’ve now found it.
http://www.ilostmyjob.com/
• Besides a very ‘on point’ website name – this is loaded with videos – so gives you a break from reading, but no loss in the value of the content!
http://www.linkup.com/
• I did not think there was a new twist to job boards – I stand corrected. Linkup takes jobs from only corporate web sites. As a seeker, these are real jobs. Nice. For now, it’s primary markets are the U.S. and U.K.
http://www.thewisejobsearch.com/
• Harry Urschel is a recruiter who writes this blog – besides having lived through his own transition, he has been deeply involved with a job transition group.
http://www.twitjobs.net/ (Okay, you are here - you know it has value!)
Of course, there are loads more – but these will give you a good start!
Good luck today.
Mark Richards
www.candidateschair.com – Tools and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
A Great Way to Learn – Teach Your Mistakes
Wednesday 1 September 2010One of the unexpected benefits of blogging and creating my CandidatesChair site was how much I learned from sharing my own mistakes.
I made some whopper mistakes and they have proved to be the best lessons for fellow candidates.
In addition to giving us a few good laughs, sharing my mistakes have saved my fellow candidates a boatload of time and potential embarrassment (like the time I forgot the name of the person who made the referral).
The benefits of teaching were greater clarity on how to fix my mistakes and spot other ones.
In teaching, you put things objectively, which is a good start. When you add the dialogue with fellow candidates, it makes for an excellent finish.
You don’t need your own blog to teach your mistakes. You can share at networking meetings with fellow candidates, offer to teach a seminar, answers questions on LinkedIn, submit a post to an existing blog, or participate in a discussion in a LinkedIn group.
I found that giving a seminar and writing blog posts are the best methods to give you clarity - as you are required to clearly layout your information.
Here’s the surprise benefit: When other candidates share their mistakes. Like me it is a mix of bonehead moves and things you wish people would have told you beforehand. Regardless of what it is, it’s all pure gold as it’s what really happens day-to-day when you search. (In fact, if it was not for the sharing of these fellow candidates, there would not be a CandidatesChair!)
A recent mistake: Just because you connect with someone on LinkedIn, does not mean they are on your contact list (e-mail or phone). I’m running late to a meeting, I look in my contacts to call them – rats! I’ll e-mail them – double rats!
Good luck this week.
Mark
www.candidateschair.com – Tools and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
Keeping Your Back Away from the Wall
Saturday 21 August 2010One of my practices for effective networking: Keep your back away from the wall.
Why? It’s one of the best methods to minimize your distractions.
There are two reasons why I’m writing on a topic that most people would think is pretty obvious: minimize distractions. The first reason is important. The second reason is just killer.
FIRST: Because distractions can repeatedly sneak up on you during a meeting, it’s not always obvious for the candidate.
Most of us out networking spend a fair amount of time in coffee shops. It’s a natural part of the experience to take in your surroundings, watch interesting people, etc.
It happens almost every time I meet a fellow candidate, they don’t even realize their gaze has wandered. I’m talking about total professionals with impeccable resumes, references, etc. – yet several times during our meeting their gaze is elsewhere.
SECOND: When speaking, the candidate’s eyes are fixed on me, because they are focused on their pitch. Their gaze wanders when I’m speaking. Ouch.
After awhile, it becomes difficult to tell if I’m a total bore or are they oblivious to their level of distraction. I have to admit I’m relieved to hear the candidate mention what they are looking at so intently. At least it makes me feel less of a bore.
In my view, each meeting represents your one and only chance to make a sale. Don’t let some odd looking fellow get the way.
The ability to make the sale is most often judged by your ability to show that the meeting is truly a ‘networking’ meeting. If can achieve that, it sets you apart from the other people who have networked with the same contact.
You just cannot get there if you are not focused on the person – especially when they are sharing their insights with you.
Face the wall. Take notes. Keep eye contact at all times (though don’t make it a staring contest). Do whatever it takes to keep your focus.
Next time you go to coffee with a friend, face the wall. See how much more you focus on them and count how often they look elsewhere and when.
This is a lesson from the networking trail, where the obvious is not always so.
Good luck today.
Mark
www.candidateschair.com – Tools, Seminars and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
"What do you plan to do with your philosophy degree – become a professional philosopher?" by Heather Haggis
Tuesday 10 August 2010
When stating you have a Philosophy degree you can be greeted with a look of bewilderment from your family, friends and now recently for me, recruiters. From personal experience I believe the question they would rather ask (if they weren’t so polite) would be: “what can you do with a Philosophy degree?” You can do a lot and very little, so it would be acceptable to ask what the point is behind spending £9K to study it. Majority of the time it isn’t to become a professional philosopher.
Philosophy has had good press and bad press in the past and while it is classed as an arts degree, there seems to be a lack of knowledge on what Philosophy students actually study. We all have a good understanding of English and History subjects, but Philosophy seems a grey area where recruiters from my experience don’t seem to be sure of the skills of a Philosophy student. Regardless of the degree, I am sure that graduates have had to explain their reasons for the course, but I believe that those skills haven’t been doubted the ways I think mine have.
Our skills can include:
· Analytical, problem solving, research, independent thought
· Debating, communication (oral and written), organisation,
· Team work, working on initiative, attention to detail,
· Dealing with some of the most complex and daring thoughts in history
I think the last is crucial and completely missed when discussing Philosophy student’s skills. Our degree is one of the few disciplines that allow its students to handle some of the most controversial essays in history. Many of these papers have influenced and directed governments, religious belief, ethics and medicine. Philosophers were once greatly respected leaders and the Philosopher Plato stated that the state (country) should be ruled by Philosophers, as they are the most educated and knowledgeable (The Republic).
While an interesting and thought provoking idea, I don’t regard Philosophy as a more respectable subject, my only qualms being that the attitude towards modern Philosophy students can be misguided. From friends and people I have come across who have shown a curiosity in my studies, the attitude seems far from the ideas above of a Philosophy graduate. Instead the typical idea seems to be of drinking in pubs discussing conceptual ideas and generally just being very boring. I found some interesting articles in the University of Leeds Careers Centre on the general idea of Philosophy students by employers as being lazy about work because they think logic, time travel, anti-realism is interesting and normal work isn’t. Furthermore, if anyone has come in contact with a Philosophy student or graduate, they will know the degree involves very few contact hours. So from the outside perspective it looks as though our degree is easy. One of my Business friends came back from her day at University to proclaim she had a look in one of the Philosophy tutorial rooms to find us “just sitting around chatting”. She was mortified because she had never seen something look so easy and informal.
However I beg to differ as would many Philosophy graduates. We may have less than ten hours of contact a week yet we are still given a forty hour workload, therefore we are expected to organise our own time and develop our own learning techniques. The advantage over a science or mathematical based degree is that we aren’t given the information; we have to find it ourselves which gives Philosophy students a sense of independent learning and maturity.
This could and maybe should look desirable to an employer, but in researching what recruiters want at entry level for graduates they could possibly be excused for thinking Philosophy graduates would think they are above work. During my research for this piece I came across an interesting article called Advice for Philosophy Graduates[i] by Rob Farrow. What he drew on were the factors which would cause stress to a Philosophy graduate looking and entering the workplace. The section I found most interesting was he understood that at entry level a graduate isn’t expected to reason, question and discuss the mechanics of their new surroundings. Instead you are given your policies and procedures and that you are expected to follow.
“…[Philosophy graduates] often move from an environment which prizes critical and original thinking, ethical integrity and rationality to environments in which these are often considered problems. The culture of compliance that is so prevalent in the modern workplace can be a shock to the philosophy graduate who has been developing their independent thought.”
Nevertheless, I know that this problem of graduates feeling restless and unchallenged occurs right across the spectrum of degree disciplines. I recognise of course there may be other degree disciplines who receive prejudice when applying for jobs by recruiters, but I have specifically chosen Philosophy because this is my chosen subject and I know from experience that there seems to be a lack of understanding of what it involves. The point I am trying to make is whether recruiters do enough homework on their applicants as we do when we apply. Graduates put a lot of trust in the recruiters to make the right decision in whether to accept their application and I would imagine most graduates would expect the recruiter to have some understanding of their discipline. I believe a good number of graduates would believe they should not have their degrees discriminated against if the discipline has a bad or unusual reputation. Philosophy seems to be one of those subjects where the air hasn’t been completely cleared and I fear recruiters might not look deep enough to see what valuable employees we could be.
[i] http://philosophycompass.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/advice-for-philosophy-graduates/
In response to: How to Beat Stress if you’re a Philosophy Graduate http://philosophycompass.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/how-to-beat-stress-if-you%E2%80%99re-a-philosophy-graduate/
7 Lessons To Better Networking With Social Media
1. Find a Person’s Preferred Communication Channel
If you want to contact someone you have never communicated with before, do some research. Find the person’s preferred communication channel. If they have a website, check out their contact page and see if they encourage people to contact them in a particular way, and follow their suggestion.
2. Say Just Enough
3. Don’t Expect a Response
I often see e-mails with phrases like “Please respond,” or “please get back to me.” Unless it is an old friend or a colleague, if you are contacting someone new, you are not entitled to a response. If the person wants to get back to you, he or she will. It is much better to say “If this is not of interest, feel no need to get back to me.”4. Clarify Early
5. What You Want is Not the Point
You may think that what you want is a phone call or lunch meeting to discuss your big idea. But communication is more than any one project or meeting. What you really want is an authentic connection.6. Be Open Without Needing
7. Give Space
The key questions people have when someone new reaches out to them, particularly those who are quite busy, are “Do I have time to bring this person into my network? How much time will they take?”Soren Gordhamer - Better Social Networking
http://TwitJobs.net The Job Community
