The Really Really’s

Some of these strategies aren’t pretty. But here’s the thing- Every company has tons of people applying for every job, and if you say no, they will easily be able to find someone else. If you end up taking a job that you don’t prefer when you could have gotten a job you preferred if you waited a week then it will be bad for you, as well as the company that hired you. As always, the key here is to be truthful. If you get caught lying- you don’t have a chance with any of them! With that disclaimer, here’s the skinny.

At the end of the day, there are really only two ways to time offers- speed them up, or slow them down.

Speed Them Up

Speeding up the process is actually easier than slowing it down. Your goal here is to convince the company/hiring manager that you need an answer/offer as soon as possible for a valid reason. This is called “creating a sense of urgency”. This can be used when a higher ranked job is likely going to take longer to come back with an offer later than a lower rank job that wants a quick answer. This is very common because top-tier companies/jobs know that they have the luxury of time because their candidates will usually wait around for the, with the opposite being true for less prestigious companies.

1- Leverage An Offer You Don’t Care About- You have been applying to jobs for months- even some you don’t really want. If you happen to have an offer you don’t care about (say, that minimum wage job at BK), use it to your advantage. Either in your interview, or shortly thereafter, share with the hiring manager that you have another offer on the table that you have to give a decision on. They don’t need to know that you don’t really care about the other offer, but if they are serious about you, they will likely either speed up the process or communicate very clearly when they will be able to get back to you. With this strategy, you have to be prepared to accept that they may not think you are worth it, and either take their usual time or even rescind the offer.

2- Name Drop Like Whoa- IF you have an interview or an offer, or even a relationship with a company that will tickle your target company’s fancy… be sure to mention it. Nothing will get a company moving quicker on an offer than if you have an interview with their competitor or another company that they highly respect.

Slow Them Down

This is harder for a couple of reasons; Most companies already move fairly slow through the hiring process (government is worse) so most of the time you don’t need this! These strategies are best used when you are trying to speed up your #1 offer and it isn’t working, or if you just want some extra buffer to think in case your #1 and #2 don’t work out. Your goal here is to delay one of both of the interview, or your answer on the offer to give you more thinking time, more time to leverage the offer with a higher ranked employer, or just to make it more convenient for your schedule.

1- Delay Your Interview- This is immensely easier if you are working- You have a meeting you can’t miss or you are out of sick days… unfortunately- this won’t fly with most employers. It’s actually way easier to make an excuse if you are unemployed (note some of these work if you are employed too). Your car is in the shop until X date, You have a doctor’s appointment that day, you have to take your cat to the vet, etc, etc. The key here is to suggest a day for the interview as soon as one is offered to you. For example, if someone calls you on Tuesday and wants to interview you Friday, try and push it to Monday or Tuesday. Even these extra couple of days can be valuable if you are trying to speed up a higher ranked employer.

2- Delay Your Answer- You have less options here than delaying the interview, but often it is easier to execute. There is a wide range of acceptable offer timings- some companies will expect an answer in 24 hours, others may give you a few months! The key here is to adjust your excuse and your delay to the expectations of the company. If a company calls you on Thursday and wants an answer Friday at Noon- Tell them you want the weekend to think about it. If the company gives you 2 weeks, tell them that you are going to be out of the country on the 3rd week and you’d really appreciate the time to mull over the offer. Be sure that whatever you say here matches with what you said your available start date in your interview was, or you could get burned.

And that’s it. It’s a bit of a dance overall to time your offers- but if you can get comfortable with the fact that it will be best for you AND the employer, it makes it a lot easier to manage.

Murphy’s Law

Murphy’s Law states that (bear with my while I get technical): You WILL get multiple offers in a short time frame and you WILL have to do some manoeuvring to get the one you really want. The good news is, we have you covered. In order to secure the job you want, you need to do the following:

1- Rank Order Your Job Preferences- Most people skip this VERY VERY IMPORTANT step. Why is it so important? Well.. If you don’t know which job you want, you can’t work the situation to ensure you get the one you want! It’s as simple as that. Truly. Also, this step will greatly simplify your life when we get to the other steps. The hard part here is to continually rank order them until you get the offer. If you just interviewed for a job that is your #1, but you have an offer that is your #2, you need to somehow figure out how you can wait to see if you get an offer for #1!

2- Time The Offers- This part isn’t easy, and it will cause you some stress… but it will be worth it. There’s two main approaches; Time them all for the exact same time (hard to do) and time them in order of your preference (#1 offer is due first, #2 offer is due 2nd, etc.) Watch out for my next post which will talk exclusively about how to do this. There are some tried and true techniques you can use to set this up.

3- Stick to you rank order- If #1 drops off the table, that means you automatically want #2. If you rank ordered properly, then #2 should still be higher than #3, regardless of whether #1 exists or not. A lot of people get hung up here, because they go back to #1 and freak themselves out because things have changed. THINGS WILL CHANGE- Offers will come, offers will be rescinded, new information will come to the table, etc, etc. The only thing certain in this world is change.

4- Start Back At #1 IF and ONLY IF you get another interview or another offer- I pretty much explained it in the bullet, but you should only go back to #1 if you get another interview/offer. This is because you haven’t weighed your new offer vs. your current ones, and #1 is the most important step!

Next post is going to be strategies on how to  execute #2- Timing Your Offers.

If you’ve been following along, you know now that we all are going to be starting at the bottom. So I have to ask, why not start at the bottom of your own company so you can parachute into the middle of someone elses!?

The Benefits Of Starting a Business

There’s a bajillions (literally… it’s a real number) of blogs talking about the benefits of being your own boss, making your own hours, etc, etc. This blog is about finding a job. And the irony is that by starting your own company and making it work, other companies will want to hire you to help make their company work! I was recently talking to an individual who did not think that her side business of fixing and custom building computers for people in her neighbourhood was worth putting on a resume. I was shocked! Sure, she wasn’t applying for a computer related field, but the ability to get clients, keep them happy, manage cash flow, and ultimately provide a great service are skills that are required in ANY job! Point being- if you have a (successful) business, put it on your resume. If you don’t, start one today! If I haven’t convinced you yet, here’s the skinny on why you should start a business:

It’s All About The Skills!- If you own your own company, you have to do it all- selling, marketing, finance, HR, procurement, communications, customer service, production. Sure, doing finance at your company is not the same as at a bank, but the bank faces similar challenges, just on a larger scale. Don’t worry about what your company does, worry about what SKILLS you are using to make your company work. On your resume focus on how many clients you had, how much revenue you pulled in, and how you designed the strategy of the company.

People Learn From Mistakes- The #1 thing employers are looking for in today’s market is experience. If you are fresh out of school, or changing industries then you have no experience. The beauty part about starting your own company is that you can create your own experience! Even better, you can make mistakes in a very low risk environment… you can’t fire yourself! (Well, you could I supposed, but I wouldn’t recommend it )

Tax Benefits- You should never start a company for this specific reason alone, but depending on which state or country you live in, you can write off things like client lunches, office supplies, or even a portion of your rent/mortgage if you use a home office. Never underestimate the importance of the money you SAVE vs. the money you earn.

How To Do It

The hardest part about starting your own company is actually starting. You aren’t sure EXACTLY what to do, you don’t know EXACTLY what your product/service is. That’s ok! The most important part is to STARt. Once you start, you can and will adjust on the go. Here’s some tips on how to make it happen:

Treat Your Company Like a Full Time Job- Don’t stop the job hunt, but all of those hours sitting in front of the computer applying for jobs and cruising Facebook can also be turned into income producing hours! You’re only spending 17 hours a week looking anyway… make it 40 and make some cash too!

Tell Your Friends/Family/Social networks that you are starting- This is not only the cheapest marketing vehicle you have at your disposal, but telling your friends and family will help you commit and give you a reason to wake up every morning an get to work. In 3 months when you see Grandma, you are going to want to be able to tell her how much progress you’ve made. The key here- don’t get down. It’s a tough go, just like looking for a job, but you need to keep at it if you are going to succeed.

Build the website/social media accounts- How do I know you will have a website and social media accounts? (I’m a psychic). Seriously, if you are thinking of starting a business without at least a basic website, we should talk! The key here is to keep your overhead really, really low. You are in business to make money, not spend it every month on services you don’t need. If you really want to do it on the cheap, start with a Facebook page/Twitter/Empire Avenue account and go from there!

So tell me beautiful people- have you tried starting your own company? Have you used it on your resume? Did it help? Looking for you in the comments!

PS- I can’t believe I linked to Urban Dictionary. It’s sad, sad day for SBN. :p

Earlier this week I was talking to an acquaintance who was in this situation. Her moral dilemma about how to represent her results at her current job while looking for a job elsewhere. (I also should point out that all of these same principles apply if you are currently unemployed). Her opinion was that because she could not claim the results to her boss yet, that it would be unethical to claim the results to a potential employer. I played devil’s advocate, because that’s how I feel like you get to good ideas and solutions. We debated both back and forth, and we didn’t come to a mutual agreement on where we stood. Here are the arguments for and against:

Arguments For

Forecasting is common practice- Weathermen, Economists, Sales Executives, CEO’s. All of these people get paid to forecast results and then readjust them as conditions change. You will never have the full amount of information so you need to move ahead with what you have.

Organizations hire on results, not promises of results- If you write on your resume “expected results” or talk about the “potential for results” in the interview, you probably won’t get the job. I can guarantee you that your competition is going to say “here are my results… 100%… no questions asked”. The other thing to consider is that it might be a month before your resume makes it through the system. If you needed that forecasted result to get the interview, then you can adjust the results in the interview.

Different messages for different audiences is standard practice- Do you tell you current employer about all of the jobs you are applying for on your spare time in the evening? Or what about that vacation day that you used to go for an interview? Not everyone needs to be privy to the same information, and sometimes you even need to omit information in order to cover your buns! On that note, you significant other’s butt looks great in that outfit… just trust me on that one.

Arguments Against

It’s not the whole truth- If I can’t claim the result publicly on my LinkedIn or within my company, then I shouldn’t be able to claim it on my resume. It makes me feel uncomfortable that I’m telling one organization one thing and another organization another thing.

The program may never go live- A great plan with no execution might as well be a bad plan. If the program doesn’t go live on schedule or gets cancelled then my forecast will be null and void.

It’s making claims on an unproven number- Even if we do implement does not mean that we will see the same results as other companies. If I claim the results and the program bombs then I will look untrustworthy.

The SBN Take

Ultimately, you need to do what feels right and how confident you are on your forecasting and your individual situation. Our official SBN advice is NEVER, EVER LIE. Having a positive outlook and focusing on the bright side is highly recommended, but you need to be able to back up your claims, and if you ever get caught lying your reputation is ruined. And if you are reading this blog, we hope you agree that reputation is everything in today’s world! (New idea for a post just there… Booya!)

Take the example of a young women with a Masters degree who ended up in a sales support role which required little to no schooling. Her job is to enter 200 names per month into a database. She could collect her salary and go home after 200 names, which would result in no upward movement. Instead, she worked everyday, coming up with new ideas to build her employers business. She entered 400 names per month, developed a webinar program for the company (which saved them a ton of money on conferences), developed a sales training program,  and is now competing for a role as an Account Executive (with a pay raise!).

So I have to ask- What if she never took the job because she was “overqualified” for it? What if she wasn’t willing to start at the bottom?

The Harsh Reality

The harsh reality is that if you want a job in today’s market, you are competing against a global workforce who likely gets paid less than you and is expected to work harder than you want to. Even within your own market, employers have the pick of the litter when it comes to hiring who they want. There’s lots of skilled people to fill that Entry-Level manager position- and guess what he did… Started At The Bottom as a Customer Service Rep!

1 in 2 Graduates are Un/Underemployed- This isn’t going away. The Baby Boomers aren’t going to retire because they haven’t saved enough money and their portfolios have been decimated. The graduates are making it worse by getting educations in skills that aren’t commercially viable.

Entry Level Is No Longer Entry Level- Academic inflation is quickly changing the dynamics of what an “entry level” job out of college or university looks like. When everyone has a college degree, yours isn’t worth very much. Jobs that used to require highschool now require a degree because they CAN. One option is to take more school, but at a certain point, you will never get your return on investment.

People Will Work For Free- One of the largest trends in recent years are unpaid internships and volunteer positions. Smart students (who can afford it) are offering to work at companies for free just so they can have experience on their resume. When your competition is offering to do entry level work for free, how can you possibly be asking for money!?

You Would Be LUCKY To Start At The Bottom- I have talked to over 10 people in the last month who would do almost anything just so that they wouldn’t have to sit at home and apply for jobs. In 6 months, would you be better off working for minimum wage (gaining experience and filling a gap in a resume) or would you be better off having passed on that minimum wage job so that you could “wait for something better”?

Use Your Positive Attitude To Embrace Starting At The Bottom

I spent a whole post talking about why you need to check your attitude at the door and embrace optimism into your life. I wanted to make sure we are in touch with our attitudes, because your attitude is what allows you to start at the bottom and consistently outperform your competition every. single. time. Even if you have the WORST job in the world, if you do it better than anyone else, people will notice and respect you for it. Here’s what to do to keep positive and land that job at the bottom:

Remember That You Are NOT Entitled To Anything- I don’t care what your parents/teachers/guidance counsellor/friend/therapist/dog said, no one owes you anything. In this world, you have to go out and make a career and a future for yourself. If you are already there- GREAT! If you need help, email me and I gladly give it to you straight.

Volunteer- Volunteering is not only a great way to get experience for your resume, it will also connect you with like-minded people and allow you to give back to your community. Organizations will almost never refuse volunteers, so pick companies or non-profits that you are interested in and call them up to see if they need help!

Take Pride In Everything You Do- Extra effort in your personal life will show employers that you will give that extra effort in your work life. Whether it’s babysitting your nieces, doing repairs on your parents home, writing a thoughtful Facebook post, or even creating a piece of art- do it with 110% of your passion behind it. When you tell employers about your interests, this passion will undoubted shine through.

It’s tough out there. I know this. Just remember that it’s tough for everyone and if you aren’t willing to start from the bottom and work your way up, someone else will!

Meet Tara.

She is an amazing graphics artist based out of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I can say she’s amazing because SBN has hired her to do some design work for us! She even does iOS icons! So Cool!

Tara came to us with a great portfolio and a vision to work at a design company called Snowed-In Studios. I’ve known Tara for about 3 years, and given her passion for Rock Band and DJ Hero, I’m not surprised that she wants to work on video games… seriously though who DOESN’T want to create video games?!?

The best part for us is that Tara has ALL of the skills and experience needed to get any design job she wanted- she just needed someone to ask the right questions and help her frame up her results in a way that get’s companies excited. Just take a look at what she has to offer:

• Owner of her own company where she worked with big clients including George Brown College, Scouts Canada, and the University of Toronto
• Professor at Algonquin College where she CREATED the curriculum for 3 Design courses
• Created a holistic brand equity for Gaming Ottawa’s new website as a volunteer
• Partnered with other artists to found the Uprising Art Collective to bring art to the masses

The resume and cover letter we worked with Tara helped her get the callback. Her experience, professionalism, and bubbly personality did the rest. We enjoyed working with her a lot and she enjoyed working with us so she gave us a great testimonial to use on our site. If you have any questions about her experience with SBN, give her a shout on LinkedIn or Twitter!

]]> http://socialbrandingnetwork.com/wordpress/success-story-tara-lands-her-dream-job/feed 10 http://socialbrandingnetwork.com/wordpress/how-to-get-a-job-check-your-attitude-at-the-door http://socialbrandingnetwork.com/wordpress/how-to-get-a-job-check-your-attitude-at-the-door#comments Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:22:52 +0000 Corey Tyhurst http://socialbrandingnetwork.com/wordpress/?p=5397 Have you heard these words before? Perhaps you heard it from a friend, or a family member, or maybe even… yourself. These words are not only detrimental  to one’s job search, but they demonstrate that a poor attitude is holding you back from securing and enjoying a meaningful career. Next time you talk to someone ...]]> “I would never do that job”              ”I deserve this job”          ”I’m overqualified for this role”

Have you heard these words before? Perhaps you heard it from a friend, or a family member, or maybe even… yourself. These words are not only detrimental  to one’s job search, but they demonstrate that a poor attitude is holding you back from securing and enjoying a meaningful career. Next time you talk to someone who you consider successful- take notice of how they talk. It’s likely they are talking positively about their jobs, their lives, and the people they interact with.

We are covering this topic in our first post of our “How To Get A Job” series because attitude is the basis of EVERYTHING you are going to need to do after this. If your attitude is off, it doesn’t matter how great you network or how awesome your resume looks. You will get into that first interview (or maybe even your first day of work) and your negative attitude will REEK from miles away! So let’s dive in.

Where The Attitude Comes From

Modern society has transformed our expectations dramatically over the past 100 years. In 1900, you were considered “privileged” if you had indoor plumbing, let alone electricity! In today’s society, we have it SO GOOD that we have come to expect everything be handed to us. Here’s some of the reasons why you might feel entitled which results in a bad attitude:

• Your parents told you to “follow your dreams”- Your Baby Boomer parents told you this because they regret not following theirs. The reality is they went to work and provided for their family, which is what you need to do too!
• You remember a time when “it was better”- If you’ve been around a while, you might remember a time when the world was different. That is fine and dandy, but the world IS different. If you want a job, you need to confirm to the world, not wish the world would conform to you.
• College was your “ticket to a great job”- Sorry kids, but your degree is only as good as what you do with it. Add to that the poor economy and the academic inflation factor, and your education is just another necessary step in the process.
• If you follow the rules you will get a good job and retire early- I guarantee you that I will have an entire post on pensions at some point. The harsh truth here is that you HAVE to assume that there is no such thing as a secure job, and most definitely no such thing as a publicly funded pension to keep you safe. Just like the above points, the rules of the game have changed, and just going through the motions at your job and in life won’t allow you to achieve your goals. You need to be exceptional and work your butt off! This will involve MAKING the rules, not following them.

How To Make Sure Your Attitude Is Positive

Your attitude can be the determination between finding a job and keeping it, or living the perpetual nightmare of job applications and living in your parents basement. To make sure you are on the positive side of this equation, I recommend the following exercises:

• Remember how good you have it- If you are reading this post right now, you are AT LEAST in the 78th percentile of the worlds income. That’s right… only 32% of the world’s population has internet! If you have internet, I would assume you probably aren’t starving, so that automatically puts you ahead of the nearly 1 billion people who can’t even afford to feed themselves. Let’s put it this way- You have 1st world problems. GET OVER IT and be appreciative!
• Always contrast your situation to the worst case scenario- Whenever something “bad” happens, I always ask myself “What is the worst case scenario?”. When you put it in the context of the world statistics above, it’s really easy to realize that there are people in the world who would KILL for your worst case scenario.
• Cut the cord on negative people- You know that friend or family member who is always complaining, or blaming other people, or acting like they are the victim of some government conspiracy? These folks are not only taking themselves down, but they are taking you down with them. You can’t always choose who you have to be around, but when you can, avoid negative people who only want to complain… because misery LOVES company.
• Ask people you trust to give you feedback- Since you won’t have any negative people left, talk to someone who you have a good relationship with and ask them about your attitude. What do they think of you? Are you a happy person? Is it fun to be around you? Most people aren’t used to asking for feedback, but you would be surprised at how forthcoming they are and how insightful it can be.

Remember that your attitude is the foundation not only for your job search, but for your life. If you’ve ever worked or lived with someone who’s had a bad attitude, you know that it’s not a good time. Make sure you are a person who people want to be around and work with, and you will already be miles ahead of the competition!!

The “how to get a job” concept is really broad. The good news is I can have content for years and years of posts! The plan for these posts it to be very specific; for example:

-How to research companies you want to work for

-Preparing your 30 second “elevator pitch”

-Working with a consultant for your cover letter/resume/interview (coughshamelessplugincomingcough)

There has been a lot of chatter recently over the trend of employers asking for the Facebook profile passwords of their potential employees. Some pundits say its fair game while Facebook has come out against the practice. Our take is that you should NEVER give out any of your personal passwords, but that you should be prepared for the question and be able to explain why you don’t want to share that information. To handle this situation you need to Be Smart, Be Prepared, and Be Principled.

Be Smart- Own Your Online Brand

Regardless of employers asking for your password, the following Social Media basics will serve you well. The goal here is to ensure that no one has a reason or a question to what you might be doing in the privacy of your profile. If they Google you ahead of time, you will be squeaky clean!

Use Privacy Settings- You have determine your own level of comfort with different privacy settings. Be sure you understand and use these features on the sites you participate in.

Monitor what you post- I don’t care how strong your privacy settings are. Once it’s online, it’s going to be on a server FOREVER. If you don’t want it to come back to haunt you, don’t put it online.

Be Prepared- Share your Brand In The Interview

Be ready to answer questions about your online activity and what you are interested in. If you’ve taken ownership of your online brand, everything should be positive! The goal here is to show your future employer that your engagement in social media is not only a good thing, it also increases the likelihood that you can make them money because you are in the know!

Show Off Your LinkedIn Profile- Your LinkedIn profile should be all business, all the time. Highlight it as the main hub of your professional online brand.

Print Out Your Twitter Stream- Take a screenshot of your Twitter stream and print it out. Tell your future employer how you began following some of the folks you interact with. Give them an example of an article you’ve shared that’s related to their business.

Tell Them About Your Interests- If they want to talk about social media, then talk about social media! This is a great time to talk about your interests, hobbies, and goals and how you interact and collaborate on various topics online.

Be Principled- Follow Your Values

If the employer still isn’t satisfied and they still request your Facebook profile password, only YOU can decide if that’s something you are willing to do for the opportunity. Here’s some options you have:

Just Give It Up- This is not the SBN recommended solution, but it’s definitely an option. If your Facebook is clean, you don’t care about folks having your password, and this is the job of a lifetime then just suck it up and hand it over. The worst that could happen… that recruiter adds that guy from elementary school who still has a crush on you…

Offer An Alternative- SBN Recommended Solution: If you REALLLY want the job, but don’t want to give up your password, you could offer an alternative such as cruising the innards of your profile with the recruiter, or adding the recruiter as a Facebook friend so they can see it all like your friends would. Finding middle ground is a good skill to have in the workplace, and they just might hire you for it.

Walk Away- If giving away your password just doesn’t jive with you, it’s OK to walk away from the opportunity. If they want to know that much of your personal information before you even work there, what will it be like when you are a mid-level manager? If this is your choice, tell them that you politely decline their request, and wish them good luck in finding a suitable candidate. Just be prepared in case they want to continue the interview because they are impressed with your candor.

These types of situations are only going to become more common as we move more and more of our lives online. Be Smart, Be Prepared, and Be Principled in order to achieve the success you are looking for!

For those who have been following my saga over the last 2 weeks, you’ll know that this is my first experience setting up and designing my own WordPress blog/website. Overall, the experience was very rewarding and I’m excited to put the finishing touches on this version and publish version 1.0 of the website over the next few days.

I have most of the basic structure of the website set up, but there is still a lot of copy to write and tweaks to be made! I’m looking for feedback, reactions, or just general advice as you peruse the site and our services. Is it clear what our business is all about? Do you have friends or family who could use our services?

I promise once everything is up and running I will have a more formal blog post and introduction to the Social Branding Network, myself, and what we do!

PS- Let me know if the RSS feed is working for you- I’ve been having a heck of a time getting it to work.