Blog Spotter One – 2011

by K B , updated on November 3, 2020

 

Kool, Kwerky, Kwestioning….. We’ve found the best of the best for you! – by Intern Richie.

Here’s what we found for you thats funny, interesting and clever this week in the HR, Careers and Recruitment blogosphere.

 

Ask a Manager poses the age old dilemma of what to do when critical personal and work commitments clash. Is there a right or wrong decision?

Its Talent Stupid provides a fascinating physiological explanation of why we all tend to talk more about our negative experiences than the positive ones, and then challenges us to harness our inner salmon and swim against the current!

hrinsomniac has been subjected to one too many bad PowerPoint presentations and she’s not going to take it anymore! If you’re guilty as charged fear not as there is hope for you yet.

Tuttopersona has an interesting take on the age old story of an underdog’s triumph over adversity that might just give long term job seekers some much needed inspiration.

And in keeping with the power of positive thinking, the Ex-Executive tells us that Jacarandas in bloom reminded her how important it is for us to reflect upon the blooms amongst the painful thorns of our workplace past.

Working for Wonka has discovered a YouTube teen rapper and wonders if we are looking at the next Steve Jobs? You might want to introduce yourself because he may just be interviewing you in a year or two!

 

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Cracking the New Job Market

by K B , updated on November 11, 2020

Last month I was sent a review copy of “Cracking the New Job Market – The Seven Rules for Getting Hired in Any Economy.” The book is by R.William Holland, Founder of R. William Holland Consulting LLC a consultancy specializing in HR and career management.

While the book is comprehensive and covers almost everything you need to know about getting hired in a tough economy, including: demonstrating your value, creating value on your resume, using social media (a passion of mine), nailing interviews and negotiation to get what you want, not what you deserve; I was particularly interested in the chapter around career choice.

We’ve spoken about the importance of finding your passion to help with finding your career before, on this post. Bill, however, says that career choice is more than finding your passion.

He writes:

“The idea that passion should guide our career choices is appealing. All of us would like to live in a world in which what we do for a living is a constant source of inspiration and satisfaction. But that does not happen very often. Most people know what they are passionate about or least what they enjoy doing. Identifying our passions is not the problem. The difficulty is linking those passions to available work. The interaction between what we do for a living and what makes us happy has many sides. And the advice to find work often distorts as much as it clarifies.”

Interesting thoughts: passion as a strong influencer of career happiness is something I have talked about quite often, possibly because in my work I rarely see people who absolutely love their jobs.

With badly written advertisements, poor recruitment practices and many confusing hands involved in the recruitment process, I often wonder how anybody makes a sound choice in a job, let alone a career.  I also think as a society we’re swept along by the idea that we deserve the best without actually having earned it and that leads to a whole host of problems from the way we interact in the workplace, to the career choices we make.

My take from Bill’s chapter on career choice, is that we need to have broader insights into what makes us satisfied, such as:

–  Our lifestyle

–  How far we are prepared to travel and where we want to live

–  What security means to us

–  Whether we want to fulfill obligations that are broader than ourselves

–  Our actual skills and strengths

–  Our values and personalities

Bill also talks about serendipity and its importance in career choice.

I really loved this idea.

“Just as much as passion is overrated in terms of career choice, so serendipity is underrated. Never let the process of career choice blind you to unanticipated opportunities. Some professionals evolve in a straight line from what they studied in college to what they do in a career. In our experience, many more cannot trace their career path so easily. And most acknowledge the role of an accidental dimension that lead to the career direction they eventually took.”

Bill says, while you can never prepare for serendipity, you can position yourself to take advantage of it if you embrace the following:

–  Learn to create value in whatever you do

–  Make the value you create not about you, but what others want from you and your ability to provide it

–  The market for the value you create may be hidden as much as splintered. Make sure that value is on display when opportunity knocks

I’d also add that you need to be social, and in a way that takes you out of your normal comfort zone of family and friends. I know of people who’ve found jobs talking to people on the beach and on bus stops. If you doubt me, take a read of this post here for some inspiration on ways people have found jobs.

For anyone thinking that they’re too old to change, Bill says:

“You never know when lightening will strike. Colonel Saunders opened his first KFC store when he was 65!”

You can see more about Bill’s book here. I strongly recommend you buy it here.

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Three things you must know before you hit the “Apply with Linkedin” button

by K B , updated on November 3, 2020

There’s been talk about this for a while, but last month LinkedIn officially released the “Apply with LinkedIn” button.

The button will appear on employment websites. LinkedIn kindly sent me a press release with this explanation on how it works. Here’s my take:

When you hit the “Apply With LinkedIn” button you can edit your profile before submitting to the employer, or you can directly hit the submit button. Once you do that your public LinkedIn profile goes directly to the employer, or pre-populates the employer’s online application form.

You can see who in your network is associated with that employer, giving you the opportunity to contact that person to improve your chances of being hired.

I always have a few questions whenever I allow third-party access to my information on social media, namely how much access am I giving and how is that data going to be used.

I put my investigative reporter’s hat back on 😉 for some reassurance, and put these questions back to LinkedIn.

Me: Could you tell me if this gives the recruiter/employer ongoing access to a candidate’s profile? What happens when an applicant updates the profile? Does that re-populate the database of the employer/recruiter?

LI: No. The “Apply With LinkedIn” function creates a PDF snapshot of the applicant’s profile. This is not linked in any way to the applicant’s profile and so would not update itself if the profile was updated.

Me: How much information does it give an employer? Will they have access to areas such as contacts that an applicant may have set as private on their profile?

LI: Before submitting their application, an applicant can edit their profile so that the recruiter/employer only sees what they want them to see, including areas of the applicant’s profile that may be set to private.

Me: Will an applicant be able close off access, if they are off the job market?

LI: An applicant isn’t granting a recruiter or potential employer access to their profile with “Apply With LinkedIn.” Instead, they are creating a static “print out” version of their profile in place of submitting the traditional CV.

So there you have it.

I have another post coming up from interviews with four headhunters and recruiters about what they look for in a LinkedIn profile. If you want to use this function, you’ll need to read this.

Stay tuned.

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Is it ever OK to lie on your resume?

by K B , updated on November 3, 2020

This question came up in an interview workshop I ran the other day.

It depends on your definition of a lie.

Below is my questioner’s scenario.

What would you do if you found yourself in this situation?

You arrive in Australia as a skilled migrant. You have skills in project management. You are post-graduate qualified. But you have no idea about how to go about finding a job. So you just apply online, sending off mass applications via Seek. Your English is pretty average as well, so really, nobody will look at you for a professional job even if they thought your experience was terrific.

Giving up on your job search you go and get diploma qualifications at Tafe and find a job managing an internet cafe. You finish your course, your English picks up and you decide to take another shot at applying for a project management role.

But your experience makes your resume look like a dog’s dinner.

If you include all your experience on your resume and you apply for a graduate or entry-level role, you look over-qualified for that role. People will probably ask questions about your time away from more senior roles, and still question your communication skills since your last role was in a cafe, not a corporate environment. If you take your senior roles and qualifications off your resume, you are underselling your skills, you may get the job, but you could end up frustrated and bored.

Here’s what I came up with when I was put on the spot in my workshop….

Option 1. Network with people who work in roles close to the professional position you previously held, and ask their advice on how to break back in, or if they are aware of any short term projects you may take on. Often businesses have tasks/projects rather than fully defined roles. If you think of looking for jobs that need to be done, rather than a job, you can work your way in. That way you build trust. Short term jobs may lead to long term contracts and you are on your way.

Then there’s the path of least resistance.

And that’s where the lie comes in.

Option 2. Delete the overseas experience all together. Apply for entry-level or graduate roles. Your resume will guide the discussion in interview, so if something is not there, the interviewer will not question it. In interview give answers based on the experience you have on paper, although you’ll probably sound more impressive as you can draw on insights from your previous professional role overseas.

I don’t have too much of an issue with the ethics of a lie by omission in this case. I do not give people a full life history when I meet them. My first degree was a ridiculous choice for me. If I am marketing myself I just pick the bits of my experience relevant to the discussion at hand. If you think about it, that’s really what you’re doing in the job hunt.

However…

My questioner may run into a few problems with approach number two. One is that we all have digital trails nowadays. Employers love Google. So he would want to have his online pathway looking pretty pristine. No references to past work and so on.

Secondly, as I mentioned before, there is research out that a bad job is worse than no job. Have a read of the summary here. If you take a job that does not give you the accountability you need, or there are excessive job demands or insecurity, you run the risk of depression. Plus you’ve taken a step backwards, so there’s a potential double whammy:  you’re depressed and have to take a long pathway back to where you really should be. Sound familiar anyone?

Option 3. Audit your skills and preferences and bring your past experience in as support. Apply for a more junior role, but in a company that is growing and does not have a hierarchical system of promotion. You may well move more quickly. You can talk about your time settling into Australia, working casually and studying as part of what defines you. It’s never easy coming into a completely different culture, even if you do know the language. Along the way you will have developed resilience and a thicker skin, at the very least.

Option three is harder than option two. It involves risky conversations and the more of the dreaded one word networking. You’re more likely to get the chance to talk about your past in a positive way, face to face if you network – if people see you as a whole person, rather than just a static and confused piece of paper.

There’s probably plenty more that my questioner could do.

But to lie or not to lie. I’d love to hear your experience or your take – truthful takes of course!

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Interview tips – How do you answer “tell me about yourself” in a job interview?

by K B , updated on November 3, 2020

This is one question most people dread, so why do interviewers ask it?

Some interviewers use it to try to make you feel comfortable, while they shuffle through their interview questions to get to what they really want to ask. Some interviewers use it to see how you communicate. Others use it to see how you sell yourself, and whether you have done your research on the role, on yourself and on the company.

To be honest, I think it’s a bit of a lazy question.

It doesn’t put people at their ease. People are generally nervous at the start of the interview, and tend to blurt out whatever comes to mind, even if they have prepared for the question. Then they worry about the impression they make. That nervousness can carry over into the rest of the interview.

So how should you prepare?

First of all, don’t rabbit on too long.

“Tell me about yourself”, will never be the only question the interviewer asks. It’s the umbrella question before they get to the specifics they want to know.  You have, however, only one chance to make a positive first impression. So you want to answer this question in a powerful way.

I’ve recently updated this blog with new examples and tips.

Click through here to find tips and examples to help you answer this question in a way that will make the interviewer lean forward and say “tell me more” and help propel the interview in a direction that you want to take it.

Need to get ahead of the pack for your next interview?

Get our free e-book The 7 Deadly Sins to Avoid at Job Interview!

Deborah Barit wrote this book. She is one of Australia’s leading interview coaches.

To get your free e-book and some of our best interview tips direct to your inbox, simply click on this link.

Here’s what happy readers said about the e-book and interview tips:

“Deborah Barit is a very smart lady…She is good at figuring out what an employer is looking for. It’s like she has ESP,with her help in preparing, I found no surprises in a recent interview and I was prepared for every question….” Cathy, Leichhardt, NSW

“Because I read so many of your posts, I feel as if you were my personal employment coach. I start my new position in two weeks. I had so many obstacles to overcome and each day you posted a solution to my dilemma and how to improve my search. Thank you so much for your input and PLEASE continue to do what you do!”

Click here to get access to the e-book.

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Job seekers – Are you in invoking the law of subtraction in your job search?

by K B , updated on November 3, 2020

You all have probably heard of the “Law of Attraction.”

We are naturally attracted to attractive people not meaning necessarily movie-star quality people but the people whose personalities brighten a room, the person you naturally call when you want to chat, and the person you enjoy spending time with on a regular basis. [click to continue…]

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