Chef Shane’s New Life

by K B , updated on November 8, 2020

I like a good success story. Not because I am a sickly sweet set your goals type, but because for some of us, and particularly me, life is a lot more complicated than that.  Life was complicated for Chef Shane too. He was stuck in a remote destination in a job he hated and had to use imagination and the internet to find a way out.  He’s done it now. He landed a post in Vietnam.  Here’s a bit of a re-cap, some lessons learned along the way and the next chapter in his story……

A while back I was an eager job hunter, using social media to supplement, and replace part of my traditional job search.

I was spending a lot of time updating my LinkedIn profile, meeting recruiters and colleagues on Twitter, and documenting my skills and interests on my blog.

I was keeping in touch with colleagues, ex-bosses and friends on SKYPE, and it was this that got me the perfect job.

I had applied for a job through an online job ad, actually got it through an agency that I had kept in touch with online, and was recommended by my old GM, who was chatting with my prospective boss on skype at the same time that I was chatting to him.

It couldn’t have happened by responding to a newspaper ad.

I was in before anyone else had a chance, and had the credibility of 10 verifiable recommendations on LinkedIn and two personal references from the Agency and the GM who knew the head of the company I applied to.

I could have been lucky, but if I hadn’t made my availability, profile and desired job type fully known, the opportunity would have bypassed me.

I accepted a position in Vietnam – a country I knew little about, and found it to be the perfect position with a great company in a fantastic city.

My employer is everything I have been looking for; well organised, far-sighted, and hospitable and making it possible to reach the full potential by providing the right tools, attitudes, support and people for success and growth.

Here’s a bit more of the story.

It took around 3 months to get a position that I felt right with.

Most advertised positions failed to call, email or respond in anyway, even when I was perfectly suited to the position.

I researched and followed a LOT of ‘resume format’, ‘recruiters want one of the two standard formats or the application gets binned’ and ‘how to make a resume’ advice. Most of them failed. Best results came when I used ‘my format’ and expressed my thoughts, personality and abilities through a creative and non-standard CV.

Many said it wouldn’t work, too ‘out there’ and ‘not what companies are looking for’ – On the contrary, my responses tripled.

I found that it was better for me to shortlist companies and interview them – rather than send out lots of applications hoping they would shortlist me.

It is overwhelming to receive many offers and weigh up the pros and cons of each position. In the end, I made the right choice. My advice? Research the one that will offer you the best lifestyle and the most day to day happiness and emotional/mental reward. I look now at the choices I could have taken and by now the honeymoon would have worn off and I’d be regretting my career choice due to the daily grind and company culture.

Be yourself. You can pretend to be the perfect candidate to get a prized job – but leopards never truly change their spots. Better to be yourself, and look for a position in a company where your personal, moral and professional values are reflected – not despised. I could have gone for a 16 hour a day, snooty, upmarket, formal, conservative position and adjusted my CV accordingly to get a high salary and better future career opportunities. But how long until I was miserable, burned out or confined by company culture and incompatibility with my new colleagues? 2 months? 1 year? 5 years? 10? Regret this piece of advice at your peril. I’m quite old now, and it is more important than any CV advice or ‘how to fool the recruiter into hiring you’ advice that is so common. Find the right match. THAT alone will give you stability, career satisfaction, and a happy rewarding life – as well as a ‘job’

There are a lot of narrow minded, old fashioned, rude, ignorant, selfish and unintuitive managers and recruiters out there. Not as many as there are unreliable, pathetic, undesirable, mean, lazy or dishonest staff – but bear it in mind.

When searching for a job, it’s easy to believe that all employers are great, and they must reply and try to give you a job.

WRONG.

They assume most applicants are the wrong one, and make it hard to get the job. Many recruiting systems and procedures are not efficient, and weed out perfect applicants as well as bad. Applicants assume that they are rubbish compared to everyone else, and start to lose confidence and faith in themselves. Use the downtime to learn new skills, get fit, change bad habits, demonstrate your abilities, start a blog, and generally be positive and useful.

This helps your chance of getting a job, makes you stand out from the crowd, and keeps your focused on moving forward.

You will see just as many bad employers as they will see bad CV’s and unsuitable applicants.

Target your search, don’t take rejections and lack of responses to heart, and try to get feedback on why you were rejected so you can improve your skills in applying, interviewing and researching.

Research the boss and the company you will work for. They will surely research you. Check their reliability, professional integrity, company culture, profitability and social morals. Make sure they are the type of people you want to work for.

Get a feel for the interviewer, and the people you will be working with. It’s important to ‘click’ with them, so that you fit in and work to the best of your potential. This was a key factor in me choosing and getting my current role.

No point in acing an interview with someone you don’t like.

Have some examples of what you do available online. These can include photos, videos, documented achievements, scans of certificates, reviews, recommendations or connections with people, companies or associations. It builds your credibility and helps employers feel comfortable about you.

Listen to professionals and surround yourself with people, attitudes and emotions that move you forward. It’s easy to be cynical, negative and point fingers at GFC, rude HR people and the like – but better to be working constructively when you are out of work, making each day count towards building your ‘personal brand’.

Ignore personal branding. It’s a myth until you are good at it. That comes from being friendly, positive, approachable, sharing your experiences and demonstrating that you are good at what you do. It doesn’t come from formulas or advice from personal branding experts.

That’s it from me.

Feel free to drop me a line, give me some feedback or ask any questions on my tumblr blog http://chefshane.tumblr.com/ and if you’d like to see what we are achieving in Vietnam, follow us on twitter @LifeDanang

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If you’ve recently arrived, here’s how to get a job in Australia

by K B , updated on November 8, 2020

How to create your own job –  Naishadh’s story

I landed on the shores of Australia, in Brisbane, on 6th August 2007 on a cold day. I knew very little about Australian culture and weather so the very next day my training began. The first few things were to organise my bank account, TFN No, and in the most important of all “look for work”.

I was confident that I would land up a decent job within next few days as because of my experience and qualifications, but, I soon learnt that I had no idea about looking for work as I never had to look for work in India. This is the case for most of the skilled migrants. In India because my experience and network was so strong I could change the job without any hassle.

I started a journey in Australia in an unknown territory with very minimal support! When it came to applying for jobs I knew only 1 mantra – www.seek.com.au I spent more than 4-5 hours per day and applied to about 60-70 applications per day. I received a 75% response saying that my application is unsuccessful and got 5-7 phone calls per week for interviews.

During this time I learnt 3 valuable lessons: 1) To socialise and meet new people irrespective if you’ve the job or not 2) Surround yourself with positive people or keep yourself away from negative and toxic people who crib and complain about jobs and careers in Australia 3) Your job hunt has to be strategic, not generic, you must plan and work on the plan

Then came the ‘day’ in early October, I was interviewed for a Sales Engineer position based in Dandenong, a suburb in Melbourne. After reaching the train station I found that it was a long walk to the company. I kept walking and walking and after 90 minutes I reached the company. The first question my boss asked “How did you get here?” I said “I walked”. I could see light in his eyes and he smiled. The interview went fine and next day I got the call that I was selected and could start work in 2 weeks. I am still so proud of the fact that I didn’t give up and kept my morale up.

I’ve always been always passionate about having my own enterprise and working for myself. I soon discovered an incredible opportunity of writing professional resumes and cover letters; further research in the subject led to me undertaking courses offered by two brilliant and accomplished resume writers. After 6 months of study and training I launched my business “Resume Solutions” and started helping professionals and skilled migrants who are struggling to find work. I also completed Get Hired Now (Job Search Training) and Interview Coach training; this boosted my credibility and also competency in delivering holistic solutions to my clients.

From someone who didn’t know how to look for work and now assisting individuals in finding meaningful employment is such an extraordinary opportunity and I enjoy every second of it.

Naishadh Gadani
Professional Résumé Writer, Job Search Coach, Interview Coach
Résumé Solutions

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What is Personal Branding?

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

You might have heard about personal branding, it is a much hyped concept that is all over the web at the moment. How does it affect us normal folks and what can we do to make the most of personal branding? Jorgen Sundberg, aka The Undercover Recruiter, will briefly explain what it is, what you should be doing and what you can expect from it.

What is personal branding?

Personal branding is how you project yourself to the world, how you create and maintain your image. Your brand is just as much about your profession and career as your background, what type of person you are, your interests and any interesting facts.

Personal branding is essentially very similar to company branding, for example the golden arches of McDonald’s or the jester used by The Motley Fool have become instantly recognizable as part of those companies. This is what you want for yourself, you want to stand out from the crowd and be memorable.

Personal branding is where you and your career are bundled together into one. It’s the way you market and promote the image of yourself. What you do and what you are all about and above all what you can do for others. Compare your personal brand to a rock star’s image, something that needs to be maintained.

All interaction you have with other people make up your personal branding. Having a meeting, making a phone call, sending an email are all activities that demonstrate your brand. Offline and online, you only get a few seconds for a first impression so you will want to get it right.

Do I need a personal brand?

You already have one. What you need is to maintain it and make sure it projects what you want it to by staying consistent continuously improve it. You will want to take control of your brand because you want to be noticed and stand out from the crowd. It will help you to be seen by current and prospective clients, business partners, employers and so forth. You want people to remember who you are and what you do.

Your online brand

First impressions count, also online. It’s free and very simple to sign up for online networking sites and they are great tools for promoting your brand. Any typical professional will have a profile with LinkedIn or Facebook, some will have lots more than this. As long as you use and maintain your profile in the right manner, you are on to a winner.

Try googling your name and see what happens. Now consider that others (prospective customers for instance) do the same. Are you happy with what they see? If you were a client, you would probably want to see a supplier with a professional profile on LinkedIn and possibly other platforms.

We already know that headhunters and HR people are all over LinkedIn like a cheap suit. Guess what, they also cross reference you on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and other sites to see that you are not simply putting on a corporate act. Make sure the brand you project is consistent and well positioned, it will help you to get that raise, promotion or even a new and better job. Just like having 20 recommendations on LinkedIn weighs in your favor, one ‘wrong’ photo can be a complete dealbreaker and leave you regretting ever signing up for that service.

My experience

I have long been prolific on LinkedIn and used it as a tool for expanding my network and to do research on people and companies. I have a large and growing network which has supported me when building this site and even coming up with ideas for posts. I set up The Undercover Recruiter to promote myself as well as the blog. Setting up a blog is optional and perhaps not the first step you want to take, although if you have the time it is definitely worth looking into. I promote this blog across a few platforms (mainly LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter) and try to have exactly the same brand on all of them.

Call to action

Make sure you are consistent with everything you communicate to the world. This includes how you speak, your emails, online presence, your resume and even how you dress. Will your prospect customer be surprised or even disappointed when they meet you for the first time? You have to make sure you are one and the same across all channels and you will then come across as genuine and trustworthy. Share information about yourself, tell stories and inspire others. Add some personality to your brand, we all know it’s easier to sell on emotions than facts. When you think you are finished, anyone should be able to locate you online and find out what you do and what makes you special. If this isn’t the case, you need to put some more work in.

Bottom line

You need to be aware of your personal brand and you should ensure that you are projecting the right image of yourself. By being consistent and congruent, online and offline, you will build up your image and people will notice and trust you. As long as this is a positive message, you will improve your chances of having a great career/building your business/making friends/whatever your goal is.

What is your experience of personal branding?

Jorgen Sundberg is a Personal Branding Consultant based in London. He helps sales people, entrepreneurs, business owners and executives to create, build and promote magnetic brands to attract more business online.  After 7 years of marketing people in recruitment, he  started Personal Branding UK and he blogs at The Undercover Recruiter and JorgenSundberg.net. You can connect with him on Twitter @jorgensundberg.

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6 reasons your recruitment consultant doesn’t give you feedback

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

One of the biggest complaints my job seeking clients make about recruitment consultants is that they actually never hear back from consultants sometimes even after they have been for an interview. So they actually receive no feedback, good, bad or otherwise.

Silence is really tough, especially if you, as a candidate, have put your heart and soul into your application.

I’ve been a recruitment consultant.

At times I’ve been a good consultant, and at times I’ve been an overworked and over-stretched consultant, struggling to meet all the targets I’ve faced and to do all the follow up I need.  So I want to dive a bit further into what makes up the silent treatment from recruitment consultants, that is why, you as a job seeker may never hear back.

I’m not making excuses, but many of the posts I have read on this stuff just skim the surface about what’s going on behind the scenes.

Or people indulge in old fashioned finger pointing labelling recruiters simply as slack sales people who are focused on the dollar. The reality is actually a lot more nuanced.

1)  First up, yes, fear of litigation, the consultant does not want to be sued.

It is actually often hard to give you as a candidate constructive feedback around your skills, when the interview process itself, has not been that scientific.

If you’ve faced a behavioural interview, around your competencies, then the recruiter could give you some targeted and useful feedback based on which competencies you did not demonstrate in your answers. Trouble is, not everyone in the recruitment process sticks to the interview script. If that’s the case anything a recruiter says, could be easily disputed by you.

2)  You may not receive any call or feedback when you are no longer a priority to the recruiter.

Read this post on the silent treatment.

Generally if this happens, the consultant is focusing on what it takes to meet their targets. They’re rewarded on placing candidates and they’re paid commission only when they meet their activity targets (client calls, visits, interviews).

If you, as a candidate, are out of the running for a role, then you are not a priority call, as the consultant focuses on what they need to make a placement.

3)  It’s really tough to give feedback.

Consultants are human (funny that). Most people like to be liked.

Disappointing a candidate is a hard thing to do, especially if the recruiter knows this is the one job their candidate wants. For a stressed out consultant, it’s easy to let this call go to the end of the day, or the end of the week, or the end of the month, or…

4)  The employer is giving the consultant the “silent treatment.”

The job may have fallen through.

Just because the agency advertises a job, doesn’t mean the job will be filled.

It’s relatively cheap to place an advertisement on a job board. Sometimes employers will place a role with an agency to test the waters. Sometimes they may change their minds about who they want. Sometimes they forget their own internal processes and don’t get sign off to recruit. Sometimes there is an unexpected restructure.

For many reasons the job may not eventuate and sometimes clients do not return consultant’s calls.

5)  The consultant has no useful feedback to give you.

Clients can sometimes give the vaguest of reasons about why they don’t want a candidate, “just didn’t think you’d fit the team”, “just not sure”, “if in doubt say no”. Or the client may give the recruiter reasons that they simply cannot repeat about your age, gender, nationality etc. There is no way that information will ever be passed on to you as a candidate.

6)  The consultant could give you the tough feedback, but knows you won’t accept it, and doesn’t need the grief you may give them if they tried.

This one’s a tricky one. If you don’t have a technical skill, for example, a qualification, experience in programming, software experience, knowledge of the law etc, then you know you don’t have that skill. It is easy for you to accept any feedback around this.

However when you lack polish (to put it politely) in the so called “softer skills” such as communication, you need to be very self aware to know that you have a problem.

If you’re not a good communicator, for a whole host of reasons, you may never know this. (Many people are great at nodding politely as if they’re listening, if  for example, you are a chronic over-talker and they’ve tuned out). Plus you’re only likely to trust this kind of communication about your communication skills if you trust the person delivering it.

As a recruiter no matter how carefully I’ve worded some feedback to reflect what the real issue has been, I’ve had people dispute it.

The conversation has not been pleasant, nor easy. I’m only human. If one person gives me a hard time for trying to do the right thing, it makes it a whole heap harder next time I go to pick up the phone.

What to do if you’re truly tired of waiting for recruiters to call back!

So if you’re reading this post and thinking there has to be a better way to find a job, rather than waiting for a consultant to call, then I have very good news for you.

I have a new training program to stop you waiting for recruiters and go direct to employers you choose.

Check out the Straight to Shortlist Challenge here.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to work with me to get 5 meetings with your top 5 employers in 5 weeks.

It’s exciting.

It’s fun.

And it will boost your confidence significantly, because you’re in control.

Not only that, getting recommended to an employer is 10 x more effective than applying online.

To find out more, click on the image below.

 

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How to make the most of a LinkedIn Group

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

Last week I wrote a post on why I “think” I regret becoming an open networker on LinkedIn. I had an enormous response. So thank you everyone for the support.  The thing I love about social media is how responsive people are if you ask for help. Jason Ball from Good People Japan, a networking group, kindly wrote a detailed comment about how he manages his LinkedIn activity and his group. He had such great tips for anyone wanting to use LinkedIn, I thought I’d feature it. Essentially Jason has used his LinkedIn group as a platform for meeting offline. Over to Jason!.

1. I closed off my connections for browsing.

2. I invited all the people in my local area to join a closed group for business to business development in my local area of Tokyo. This eliminated recruiters, financial planners/appointment setters, Network Marketers, and people touting business to consumers (who see everyone as a potential customer). I kept it local to Japan unless people were referred to me and had some connection to doing business in Japan.

3. My concept is about meeting in person in small groups around proposed subjects of interest. It’s also about me introducing my network to each other.

4. I became a moderator then administrator to another large group called “Business In Japan”, which had 11,000+ members world wide, and 4,500 Japan based members.  So now when people from overseas invite me as a contact, if they have taken the time to make a personal approach or have an interesting profile for doing business or working in Japan, I recommend they join “BIJ”. If they’re in Japan and fit the profile for my group I recommend we meet up in person some time, or even at an event. There I may mention GoodPeople Japan and the BIJ Group.

5. I focus on engaging with people through all channels, including into Twitter. I may soon include Facebook.

6. I focus on spending 20% of the time in person being very clear on how people can help me and 80% of my time understanding and suggesting how I might help others.

All this means I’m busy yes, but I’m busy with “real” people who are the people behind connections, followers and “friends”.

Other than that, I’m still learning how to best engage people, how to best help people and how to and define where I’m going, all while having a whole heap of fun!

Thanks again, fellow Aussie “LinkedIn”-er! (This Aussie uses LinkedIn)

Jason
Connecting GoodPeople
http://jp.linkedin.com/in/goodpeople
@GoodPeopleJapan
http://www.goodpeople.jp

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Tricky job interview questions you’d better have an answer for….

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

According to Ross Clennett, trainer to the recruitment industry, a good interviewer should not ask you job interview questions about your strengths and weaknesses.  Instead they should ask more pointed job interview questions where you, on the other side of the table, need to provide evidence.

Here’s his list of ineffective job interview questions and suggested alternatives. He calls his job interview questions effective. We call them tricky. Consider yourself warned 🙂

Ineffective job interview question: What are your major strengths?

Tricky job interview question: In your last performance review, what aspects of your work did your reviewer mention as being particularly good or strong?

Or: What accomplishment or aspects of your current/most recent work are you most proud of? Why are you proud of it and describe to me how you accomplished it?

Ineffective job interview question: What are your major weaknesses?

Tricky job interview question: In your last performance review, what aspects of your work did your reviewer mention as needing to improve the most to take your work performance to the next level, and tell me what you have done with respect to that feedback?

Tricky job interview question: How did you feel about that feedback?

Tricky job interview question: How did you respond when you received that feedback?

Ineffective job interview question: What will you do if your child gets sick during work time? (Also avoid: Do you have young children?)

Tricky job interview question: Because of the intense customer-focused and high response nature of this job (or substitute any other valid job-related criteria), it is extremely difficult for the client to be flexible with starting and finishing times between the core hours of 9am and 5pm. Does that present any difficulties for you with respect to any other commitments you have?

Ineffective job interview question: Where do you see yourself in three years’ time?

Tricky job interview question: What skills do you want to gain or improve in the next 12 months and what steps have you taken recently to achieve this?

If you haven’t properly prepared for your interview, reflected on your strengths and weaknesses, plus how you can support anything that you claim, these questions can trip you up.

Read Ross’s full article here.

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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