Liar, liar, resume on fire

Randy Place

As unemployment continues to rise and jobs continue to be scarce, some job hunters believe the only way they’ll get hired is to lie on resumes. 

People who consider telling a lie on resumes need to understand there’s a good chance you’ll get caught. Corporate big brother is watching through background checks that have become par for the hiring course.

Many executives have been caught in the act of lying. Even big shots like Radio Shack CEO David Edmondson who resigned three years ago after it was revealed Edmondson claimed degrees he didn’t have. And last spring, Vahid Manlian, a big shot at Broadcome, got the axe for inventing two college degrees. Shortly thereafter, Herbalife president Greg Probert was booted over a fabricated MBA. The list goes on and on. You can avoid getting on that list by adopting honesty as the best policy. 

How corporate background checks work

Background checks performed by companies will verify your educational credentials and previous employment. They’ll want to make sure your driving record is clean -- if driving is connected to your work -- and that you have no criminal record. But checking doesn’t always end after you’re employed. Employers often retain checking services to keep digging into your background during the tenure of your employment.

Steps you can take concerning a check on you

When a background check reveals a black mark against you and a prospective employer rescinds an offer based on information uncovered, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires them to tell you about it. This gives you the opportunity to dispute material that’s been uncovered and try to make your case. 

Would you like to beat prospective employers to the punch? You can pay a background checking service to check you out the  same way an employer would check you out.

You can take the first step to a background check by Googling yourself to see if there’s something stupid, silly, or juvenile that you’ve written or others have written about you. And while you’re at it, make sure your Facebook has an adult look about it.

Your Career Service will present more on this topic in our next report. In the meantime, why not check out four rules observed by job search winners,  a previous post on this blog.

It's okay to be shy

Randy Place

Although introverts and shy people succeed more at interviews than extroverts, your shyness can hold you back from advancing at work, from getting promoted, and from getting another job

It’s okay to be shy. Interviewers like introverts because they’re good listeners. But if you’re the kind of introverted shy person who fears talking to your boss, going on a job interview, or asking for a raise and find these interactions terrifying -- you have a social disease. It’s called social anxiety. 

 You know you have social anxiety if you --

• Avoid opportunities to speak at meetings
• Select jobs where you can work alone and have minimum contact with others
• Fear being wrong and of making mistakes
• Avoid talking to your boss, other authority figures, and some colleagues
• Prefer to e-mail in order to avoid phone or in person conversations
• Experience physical symptoms of sweating, blushing, and breathing rapidly in stressful situations or just thinking about stressful situations.

Social anxiety might be the reason you feel stagnated or trapped in your career. It’s also the reason you feel others get ahead and you don’t, because they’re suck ups and you’re above that. Maybe you are but you need to treat the social anxiety that’s holding you back

Psychologists tell us fear of interacting with others is caused by a fear of saying something embarrassing, making mistakes, meeting new people, or talking to authority figures. It’s your internal script that criticizes and inhibits you from taking action.  

Are you a socially anxious person? Your own disparaging self talk and thoughts otherwise known as "stinking thinking" are holding you back. You avoid speaking in public, taking credit for your work, and calling attention to yourself.  When it comes to climbing the ladder of success, social anxiety is a recipe for failure. 

But there are solutions to overcoming shyness and social anxiety –

• You can participate in the meetings of Toastmasters, a national organization that helps people overcome social anxiety and the fear of speaking in public.

• You can find a therapist that specializes in cognitive-behavioral therapy. This kind of therapy is based on the idea that your thoughts cause feelings and feelings result in negative (or positive) behaviors. 

In cognitive behavioral therapy, you’re taught to identify your self-talk that causes you to feel stressed, and then trained how to think more constructively. People who exhibit social anxiety can take the bull by the horns to lose the fear of talking to important people and never be passed over for promotion again. 

Click here and read how to overcome interview anxiety. it' a related post on Your Career Service.

Good-looking writing

Randy Place

So you’re gong to sit right down and write yourself a cover letter are you? Your job-search correspondence is more likely to be read when you make it look attractive This is done by using good graphics – displaying your written work in an interesting way. 

Good-looking writing invites your reader’s eye into the page. And the  way to make our letters and e-mails look cool, is to pay attention to the way you string together paragraphs and sentences. 

How to write paragraphs

The how of writing paragraphs is easy. Vary the lengths of your paragraphs. Your longest paragraph should be not longer than seven lines. But if your letter consists of only seven line paragraphs, all your reader sees is a black wall of type. How boring can you get? A page or two of long paragraphs discourages reading. 

Your letter can start with a short paragraph. Follow that with a longer one. Then a medium sized passage. You can even make them single or double lines.

A paragraph is a unit of thought. And starts with the most important point you want to make This is followed – in logical order – with less compelling information toward the end of each paragraph. You can think of paragraphs in terms of an upside down triangle. The most important information -- the material intended to grab your reader -- goes up. While the less important things you want to say goes down by the tip.

How to write sentences

While a paragraph contains a thought, sentences are units for a single idea. For job-search writing, keep your sentences short; 35 words max. When you’re finished writing your sales, cover, or follow-up letter, go back and count the words in each sentence. A computer’s “word count” feature makes this a snap. Make long sentences shorter. Either cut words you don’t need, or break a long sentence into two. 

Your Career Service will continue our discussion about job search writing in the next post. So stay tuned. In the meantime, for a related article about job search writing, click here to read how to write a dynamic cover letter, a previous post on Your Career Service.

How to impact companies with today's job-search strategies

Randy Place

Because the way to find jobs has changed over the years, you need to change your modus operandi in order to impact companies with your job-finding campaign. 

You’ll get interviews quicker and impress interviewers when you understand the old ways of job finding is out. With today’s unemployment rate inching towards 10%, job hunting isn’t like the good old days when you updated your resume, called everyone you know, and wallpapered corporations with copies of your resume. Yet, that’s what most job hunters still do: wallpaper HR departments with resumes. 

That’s why you need to separate yourself from the pack. The four tips that follow will enable you to do that and change with the times -- 

1. Stop sending unsolicited resumes. Because hiring managers and HR recruiters throw out unsolicited resumes, don’t use this method as the centerpiece of your campaign. 
2. Target several companies you would like to work for. Then research each company to uncover reasons why you want to work there and how you would be an excellent fit. Managers will be impressed with your knowledge and advanced planning. Click here to learn how to contact your target companies and request meetings.
3. 3Call some of your networking contacts to ask if anyone knows someone at your list of targeted companies. It’s easier to score appointments through referrals. When you can’t get names from personal contacts…
4. Find the name of an executive inside each company who could hire you if there were a job.  Then you can write a letter explaining how you’ve researched a particular company, discuss your background, and give reasons why you can help. Do not enclose your resume with this value proposition letter. 

Your letter is sent to a decision maker – the person who could hire you – not somebody at HR.

And be sure to read "The secret of finding a new job," a previous post on Your Career Service.

What to do when a contact blows you off

Randy Place

Today, Your Career Service provides you with tips to overcome objections when a contact puts you off by saying he doesn’t have time to meet with you.

When that happens, express appreciation for his position and how busy it must keep him. Then you can explain, “That’s one of the reasons why I’m calling you because you’re an executive who can give me the kind of input I need in order to take the next step in my career.” Your statement ends with a request for a three-minute meeting.

Both you and your prospect know the meeting will go over a few minutes. But experts in telephone marketing have had much success with requests for “just three minutes of your time.”

If your contact remains reluctant to meet at this time, say, “I understand you don’t have time now. But I would really value your counsel, so I’d like to keep in in touch.” Then ask if you can call again in a month or so.

When somebody says she’s “not interested,” it usually means that the timing is not right for a meeting at this time. Therefore, to get a commitment from this person for a meeting in the future is important. Instead of having to cross that contact off your list, you add him to your calendar for a follow-up phone call.

Persistence pays off as long as you don’t become annoying. So before hanging up the phone, thank your contact in advance for his opinions and support. Also for their valuable time. A sure fire way to have someone be willing to hear from you the next time you call, is to pay them a sincere complement.

How to meet people face to face

Part four in a series about how to develop and use prospect lists for your job search

Randy Place

When it comes to working your prospect list, the third step is to pick up the phone and start calling prospects in order to make appointments for face-to-face conversations. As I said in the previous post on Your Career Service, some job hunters and salespeople equate picking up the phone with having a tooth pulled. 

The telephone process becomes easier when you understand the telephone doesn’t weigh 300 pounds. Your phone weighs less and less the more times you pick it up. With practice, you’ll become a star, calling both referrals and people you know for appointments.

Remember, your phone is a tool for making appointments. To make an impression you need to have that face-to-face conversation mentioned earlier. Too often, candidates for jobs and salespeople make the mistake of trying to make a telephone pitch. This isn’t the best way to make a presentation because you need to be there in order to get hired. Or to make a sale. That’s why you need to think of the phone as a tool primarily for scheduling an appointment. 

An exception to the rule is a telephone interview. Although you need to present more while interviewing by phone, keep asking the interviewer for the opportunity to meet in person. The reason for trying to score a meeting is because prospects are hiring you, not your voice. Again, you need to be there in order to get hired. 

Most of my job hunting clients have increased their effectiveness on the phone by incorporating the following five tips for making appointments by phone –

1. Is this a good time? How many times have you bee called when you didn’t feel like talking? Your caller certainly didn’t receive a good reception. So do your caller the courtesy of asking, “is this a good time to talk.” If it is, you’ll get the attention you deserve.

2. Express enthusiasm. The more enthusiastic you are, the more appointments you’ll score. A key to the word enthusiasm is the last four letters IASM It stands for “I am sold myself.” If you aren’t sold on yourself, nobody else will be. 

3. Complement your listener.  You pay people a big complement by telling them how much you value their opinion “because you’re a professional who can provide me with some valuable perspectives.” This is also called sucking up with dignity.

4. Prepare a script. Because scripting might make you sound canned or over rehearsed, just write an outline of key points –

• Who you are
  
• Why you’re calling
  
• Give a choice of days/times to meet

5. Close the deal. The last point is to get what you want from the call – an appointment. Offer a choice of times and days you believe would be convenient for your contact to meet with you. Never ask “when can we get together?” always assume a contact will want to meet with you. 

Next time, Your Career Service will provide tips to overcome objections when people try to put you off or say they’re too busy to meet with you. In the meantime, click here to read “How to develop people on your networking list,” the first in this series on Your Career Service. 

How to develop people on your networking list

Part 3 in a series about prospect lists for selling and job-finding

Randy Place

Today’s post on Your Career Service is about how to develop people you’ve generated on your networking list, along with telephone management for when you’re ready to pick up the phone to set up meetings. 

This is the third in a series about creating networking or prospecting lists for your job-search and selling efforts. You’ve read two articles so far on Your Career Service about how to develop a top 100 networking list –

• Part 1: How to prepare a top 100 prospect list 
  
• Part 2: Network lists for your job search
  

This week’s article describes the third step -- developing people to call by flushing out a preferred network list from the original top 100. 

Because you’ll find not everyone on the big list will be willing to meet with you, a preferred network list is important. It enables you to avoid a dose of rejection upfront by identifying those names who you think will be the most receptive to providing advice and encouragement and, of course, referrals. These are usually the folks who are outgoing, positive, open, and the most fun to be around.

When your not sure about who your preferred contacts are, put check marks by the names of people who you feel are negative personality types. While there’s no need to cross them off the list, they’ll be the last people to call.  

Remember to include successful people you know. You’ll make a big mistake to avoid them because you assume they’re too important or busy to spend time with you either in person or on the phone.  It’s a fact that successful people are often the ones most willing to meet with you. How do you think they became successful? Through the help, advice, and encouragement of others. So many highly successful people you know are only too happy to pay back.

And don’t limit contacts to your own back yard. It makes no difference if your target lives and works close by or in a state across the country. Such contacts might know people in your area who can help. Either way, you can pick up the phone and call. 

But may job hunters and salespeople equate using the phone with having a tooth pulled. For this reason, Your Career Service will show you, in our next post, how to improve your telephone skills. Stay tuned for our telephone communication techniques article.

In the meantime, we’d love to hear about your experiences working with prospect lists. If you’d care to share, just click the comments button below and write away.