Job Seekers vs. Skills Holders, Champions and More

The professionalism and attention to detail that Angela Loeb and Jay Markunas of the Job Search Boot Camp made our job search podcast particularly good. I think you’ll enjoy it.

As always, thanks to JobCannon.com (formerly CardboardResume) for their support of The Market for Me. JobCannon is the software that I recommend to my readers.

Here are a few excerpts:

Brian, let’s start out by talking about the idea behind your book’s premise “Corporations hire without joy and fire without remorse” – can you tell us what you’ve observed, and what’s motivated you to reach out to job seekers like this?

This is a somewhat cynical statement, but it underscores the imbalance between what a corporation is willing to commit to in exchange for your services and what employees are willing to commit to in exchange for a paycheck. We’ve seen this movie: your boss loves you. She fights for you. Get’s you raises. Promotes you internally. And when the stock price drops, she lays you off.

Corporations have the lawyers, HR people, policies and procedures in place to optimize their workforce. Employees on the other hand, offer blind loyalty. We don’t look for work when we have work. We identify ourselves with the company. We join and leave a company with great emotion. This works to the advantage of the corporation.

Brian, I know you like to talk about the differences of attitudes between Job Seekers vs Skills Holders. Can you tell our listeners what you mean by this?

The most striking distinction between a job seeker and a skills holder is that job seekers want something. Skills holders have something. The skills holder has skills that they will sell to the company that pays the most for them. The job seeker needs a way to pay his mortgage.

Job seekers exchange time for money. Skills holders exchange value for money, and thus skills holders grow their value. Job seekers can’t grow their time.

For a Skills Holder to advance, they must be in the market for better opportunities. Job holders have a much smaller market for their talents: one company.

Job seekers are expected to be loyal, while skills holders offer dedication. Job seekers don’t anticipate an end to their employment. Skills holders expect to have several career transactions as they grow their skills and income. Skills holders are always looking for the next opportunity.

Job seekers are afraid to admit that they’re on the market, and this saturates every communication they have with low confidence.

You mention having an attitude of valuing your worth in the market. When it comes to negotiation, I always advise people to always negotiate. Could you elaborate on this idea you bring up about “time vs value” and “fair vs best”?

Negotiation is easier when you know your value. When you know how much people with your ability are making, you come from a different place when discussing your wage and benefits.

So many of the job seekers I talk to have not looked for work in years. They don’t know what they can negotiate for. Too many underestimate their skills. Never ever stop looking for a job again. In the negotiation, job seekers try to find a “fit.” Skills holders try to find a weakness, a whole that they can fill. They have a very different conversation around compensation.

Brian, in the Job Search Boot Camp, I use a quote from Dan Miller. He says that young people graduating from college nowadays might have as many as 14 to 16 jobs in their career. This equates to getting a new job every 2-3 years. What do you think about this?
Do you think it’s a realistic assumption that we might have to change jobs that often?

Dan is just one source of this kind of research, and the days of long stays with one company seem to be over for many of us. Let’s turn it around. Do you want to prepare yourself for a rapid-change environment that may never actually develop, or prepare yourself for a long-tenure environment that may be over?

Most of us could end up working for 25 years at jobs, but that will probably mean slower wage increases. It’s profitable to change companies. New skills are learned when you change companies. The problem is our fear of change. I say plan for this “new” job market and be pleasantly surprised if companies rise to the occasion with longer term positions.

One of the biggest attitude hurdles I see with job seekers, Brian, is fear. Many people are afraid to talk about their situation. What do you suggest?

As I said, skills holders are looking for holes, weaknesses in an organization that they can fill.

Instead of talking about “what you’re looking for” or “that you’re between opportunities,” start by asking “What are you trying to accomplish at your company?” “What is your biggest challenge” in my area of expertise? “What do you have to accomplish this year in sales?” “Are your store managers doing the things you need? Have you thought about this?”

Be interested in their problems, and position yourself as a solution.” I also recommend having a list of companies that you’re interested in. Instead of saying “I’m looking for a job as…” ask “Do you know anything about ACME here in town? I’ve heard good things and want to check them out.”

What other attitudes would you say hinder job seekers or skills holders?

“I don’t want to bother people, even if I am looking at a specific position or company.”

“I have a job. Why should I keep looking?”

“Why should I help someone else find work. I need a job!”

“The company I want to work for is not hiring for people with my skills.”

“I’ll take whatever I can find before I run out of money.”

Today Brian Massey presented If you Want the Interview, You Need a Champion to a group in Austin.  Hopefully a few you reading this blog were able to make Brian’s presentation.   I had other activities so I was unable to see the refreshed version of the presentation in person.  An older version of the talk can be found at here.

I wanted to add some general thoughts about job champions.  From the book, the are four key things a champion may be able to do for you.  They are as follows:

1. Give you insider info about company or position
2. Hand your resume to hiring manager
3. Recommend you
4. Keep you away from bad deals.

This does not mean that a champion has to be  a person that will go to bat for you and insist that you be hired.  It does not mean that your champion has to give you some glowing recommendation. While those scenarios would be ideal and having a strong champion will certainly give you an advantage.  However,  a champion might just be someone who can vouch that you would fit into the company culture.  Or that you could do the job.

Sometimes just the fact that a resume was submitted from an internal source or that someone knows you is enough to differentiate you from a whole stack of resumes and get you an interview.  Sometimes just getting in the door is the most difficult part.   If you’ll look to find champions at places you want to work you’ll certainly increase your odds of getting more interviews.  Once you get an interview make sure to follow up with everyone you interacted with and your champion.  It is amazing how often people today do not follow up.  By following up with your champion, you show appreciation for their assistance.  They’ll be more likely to help you in the future and  they may be able to further help you follow up with the decision makers.  Finally, they are more likely to continue to be behind you and possibly with even stronger support  throughout the process if you will follow up.

A champion may not be able to get you a job, but by finding and utilizing job champions during your job hunt you’ll go a long way to improving your odds.

There are two opportunities to network with job seekers skills holders and freelancers, and learn about The Champion Strategy and The Magic Email.

I’ll be presenting at the following venues:

If You Want the Interview, You Need a Champion

Career Connections, Workforce Solutions Round Rock

July 7th 9:00 am
Williamson Conference Center, behind the Wingate
209 N I-35, Round Rock, TX‎

No RSVP required.

The Magic Email that will Grow Your Practice or Find You a Job

Freelance Austin

July 8th, 12:15 pm to 1:30 pm
Spicewood Springs Library
637 Spicewood Springs Rd, Austin, TX

RSVP: http://budurl.com/9jkx

I look forward to seeing you there.

“I’m doing all that.” Are you really?

I often hear from people who can’t seem to get interviews that their doing all of the networking they can. They claim to be following the rules and “doing all that.” If they’re not getting interviews, then they’re not “doing all that.” Period.

This is how you’re going to find your next job, and the job after that: You’re going to be at the center of some unforeseen series of events, events that baffle the mind and seem to have been coordinated by some greater intelligence determined to get you to the next stage in your career.

Unless, of course, you don’t take networking very seriously.

Human beings are amazing filters. They connect information in ways that are unexpected and cannot be planned. When you are the recipient of one or more of these connectsions, you will wonder how the right person was at in the right place for you to have that oh so important conversation.

Those of us that take networking seriously experience this kind of serendipity on a regular basis. Are you?

Thom Singer

As it turns out, I’ve got a lot more work to do when it comes to networking. Thom Singer, author of Some Assembly Required how to Make, Grow and Keep Your Business Relationships has a cool little application called the Networking Quotient. I got to hear Thom speak recently, and he makes it pretty clear: your life depends on it; your business, career, and, in Thom’s case, the life of his daughter.

My score is 45. Here’s how I stack up against others like me:

Good Networking Skills. You are on the right track with your networking, but it would be beneficial to your career if you made your professional network more of a priority. Your score proves that you realize the people who make up your social and professional network are not just supporting players, but have lead roles in your current and future success. You only need to make some minor adjustments to take your business relationships to the next level.

What do I lack? It turns out that I need to do a better job of following up. I apologize if you are nodding your head in agreement.

My book and CardboardResume seek to answer the question, “What do I do when I get a new contact.” Thom proposes a customized program of follow up. I believe that your follow up should always include an email inviting someone to join your career network by sending one magic email.

I’ll tell you more about the Magic Email in my next post.

http://www.networkingquotient.com

http://thomsinger.com

If you want me to help you find a job, send something specific.

Ryon Harms at The Social Executive has declared the resume dead. If only it were true. But, just because HR people want resumes doesn’t mean you need to inflict them on your network.

I hope I made the point loud and clear in my presentation If You Want the Interview, You Need a Champion. Don’t send me a resume and ask me to tell you "if I hear anything." I’m not going to read your resume. I don’t even like to read my own resume. Why would I read yours?

Instead, ask me for permission to receive an occasional email from you. Then send me a company or position you’re interested in.

Of course, it’s good practice to includes something I might find valuable. You can send the link to a free copy of my book. Otherwise, you could send a link to someone else’s blog. But, why not your own? A blog instantly establishes you as an expert in your field, even if no one else is reading it.

I know I’d rather get a link to a blog post than your resume.

http://thesocialexec.com/your-resume-is-dead-long-live-your-blog/

Photo courtesy http://www.sxc.hu/profile/sibaudio

If you want the interview, you’ve got to find a champion, like me.

I can get you a connection to any hiring manager at any company. So why haven’t I heard from you? Why haven’t you asked me about the position you just applied for?

This afternoon I got the chance to speak to a room full of job seekers at the NetworkInAustin’s Get Hired! Job Strategies that Work event.

I asked the attendees to raise their hands if they’ve applied for a job in the past two weeks. 90% of the hands went up. I then asked how many of them sent me an email to find a champion for that position. No hands.

“Why didn’t I hear from you?!”

The answer, of course is that they didn’t have me in their network. The shame is that there’s no reason that me — or many well-connected individuals like me — couldn’t be a part of their network. We can be your Champion when you apply for a position.

CardboardResume is the online career management tool that helps you find Champions, reducing the length of your job search. Get more interviews at the places you want to work with CardboardResume.

Learn more job search marketing strategies at The Market for Me Book Blog.

Update: The Audio of Kim Brushaber’s presentation Network Your Way to Your Next Job is now available here:

Kim is a well-connected recruiter at Bridge ATX

Skills Holders know that it’s all about quality, but have things changed in this job market?

Skills Holders believe that the majority of their job search time should be spent on the most important parts of the effort:

• finding a champion
• locating unposted jobs
• applying for those positions where they have a champion
• interviewing
• following up

The idea of applying to as many jobs as possible in the hopes of increasing the odds of getting more interviews is, well, odd.

I posted my take on the "quantity vs. quality" argument at the CardboardResume blog. It may sound like a Zen koan, but this is the upshot of my advice:

“Once you get that quantity doesn’t matter, you realize that quantity is everything.”

Curious about what you missed at the door64 Tech Fair?

You can find my presentation "Job Attitudes that will get you More Interviews at the Places you Want to Work", including audio on Slideshare.

Thanks to Tal Boyd and videographer Weston Norton of Reel Social Media for putting this together.

Thanks Charlie Nichols Brown for recording this and posting it

This was recorded at the excellent door64 Tech Fair.

You can get a free copy at http://marketformebook.com/door64 sponsored by CardboardResume.com

Things have changed.

Things have changed in the job market, and if you’ve been retired for any period of time, you need to catch up. The good news is that you don’t have to become a social networking expert, like your kids probably are. The bad news is that you’re going to have to pick up some tools that may be new to you, including LinkedIn.com.

Matt Scherer talks about the challenges of finding work when our skills may be rusty or even down right irrelevant on MySA.com: Mel Indyk: a man who could inspire other seniors to return to the work force. If you spend your day searching job boards and applying for work "through channels," you are going to experience a feeling of inadequacy. You’re going to let your age weigh on you. As a result, you are going to be a poor candidate.

But becoming a good job candidate doesn’t require retraining, plastic surgery or fudging your age. It requires you to look at the job search differently. You can do this. You can learn how to nurture a job search network using tools you are comfortable with such as e-mail.

A great place to start is this blog. The next step is to get a free copy of The Market for Me: Surviving Job Loss and Building Your Lifetime Career Network. This Emergency Edition is sponsored by CardboardResume.com.