American Idol and Your Job Search | Career Rocketeer

I admit it; I am a music lover and I’m hooked on watching American Idol from the time they choose the Top 24 and onwards. This week I was reflecting on America’s #1 rated TV program in terms of what I do for a living (I critique and write resumes and coach job seekers on how to find a job), and it dawned on me that there are similarities and lessons to be learned from the show in regards to writing a professional resume and conducting a successful job search.

So that’s what I would like to focus on today.

The first similarity is that there is a tremendous amount of competition for every American Idol slot and just as much competition for the jobs you’re applying for. What’s more, in both cases only one person emerges as the winner of the competition. Therefore every job hunter who feels they have something to offer must enter the competition with the mindset of coming out on top. And if your mindset in writing your resume and conducting a job interview is “just making the cut is good enough,” then you are just setting yourself up for failure. To be a winner you must push yourself the extra mile at all times, and be willingly to extend as much time, effort, money and energy as is needed win the prize. If you don’t already have this mindset, I strongly suggest you rethink your goals and priorities and get them straight.

Next I found several valuable lessons job seekers can learn from the American Idol judges.

The first is simple. During the application and interview process your resume and candidacy will be judged by more than one person, and no two judges are 100% alike. Hence, as you move ahead in the search process each judge will assess you from a different perspective. Your greatest challenge is to show the ‘board of judges’ a body of work and a winning combination of positive attributes so they reach a consensus that you are the #1 candidate for the job.

Now if we explore this thought more closely there are some fine points you can learn from the individual judges.

A: Some judges are easy to please like Randy and Ellen, some are unpredictable like Kara; and lest you forget, you will always come across a judge like Simon in the screening and interview process. This judge knows exactly what he or she expects from you, pulls no punches in confronting you, and has the gravitas to influence their fellow judges and all of the peripheral people who are involved in the decision making process with their point of view.

B: At some point in the process, and it may even be from the onset, one or more of the judges will stop being open-minded and show a prejudice for one of the candidates. More often than not this is based on the likeability factor, as opposed to pure talent.

C: Each judge wants to feel their opinion is correct, but the weakest judges will usually back down and support a presumed front runner rather than go out on the limb for someone they like but have not yet fell in love with.

With this in mind, job seekers need to do your homework and learn as much as possible about each of the judges before you have to deal with them, and if possible throughout the interview process. This is where the value of having an established job search network comes into play. So if you have not begun networking or if your network is limited I suggest you start working on expanding and strengthening it as of today.

Finally let’s examine some of the judges' criticisms and see what else we can learn from American Idol.

There was one theme I heard over and over at some point from all four judges that really resonated to me as a resume writer. These are all variations on the same theme: “You have to make the song your own” or “It’s boring and I would never go out and buy that song,” or “It is so cliché and is just an imitation of the original; that’s not what I am looking for.”

What the judges on American Idol and the judges who are reviewing your resume and candidacy are looking for more than anything else is what sets you apart in the competition. This is the most important thing to consider when you prepare your resume and when preparing and delivering answers to questions you’re likely to be asked on an interview. Remember, one misstep and you will find yourself in the ‘Bottom Three’.

Next and equally important to job seekers is that the judges are looking for someone who has the combination of talent and presence. This too is the key to a winning resume and job interview. Having one without the other also lands you in the ‘Bottom Three’. Early on in the process having this deficiency you may still make it to the next level. However in the end you won’t be selected the overall winner.

Whether you too are an Idol fan or not I hope these pointers help you in your job search; and if you have any questions about your resume or job search strategies please feel free to contact me. (www.perrynewman.com)

---

Author:

Perry Newman, CPC CSMS is a nationally recognized executive resume writer, career coach, AIPC certified recruiter and SMMU certified social media strategist known for his ability to help his clients get results. You can view sample resumes at http://www.perrynewman.com and email him your resume at perry@perrynewman.com for FREE telephone resume critique.

via careerrocketeer.com

Posted via web from Encouragement For You

Thousands of Entry Level Jobs - Secrets of the Job Hunt Career Podcast

Reposted from CareerAlley

"Long-range planning works best in the short term" - Doug Evelyn

One of the brand new, "just out of school" guys that I work with is always asking questions about how to get ahead, should he get his MBA, what types of jobs should he be doing 5 years from now, how does he prepare for becoming a manager. All of these are great questions and he is asking them as part of his long term plan. But if you think about it, he is asking them in the short term as part of his long term plan (I know, this sounds crazy, but think about it). Your job search is much the same. Every choice you make will lead you to where you are ultimately going. Some will feel wrong, and some will be perfect, but every step is the short term of your long term plan. Now about those Thousands of jobs, yes, thousands of jobs. In fact, probably 10's of thousands of jobs. I love running these posts every few months because it gets everyone's attention. But, it's not just an attention getter, there really thousand of jobs out there, so take a look.

• Hotjobs.com - There were 8,353 entry level jobs (when I checked) from one of the best known job search boards. Use this search link and then adjust the criteria on the left hand side of the screen to match your criteria for city, job categories, jobs by company and more. There are additional resources at the bottom left hand side of the screen (very bottom of the page) for resumes, interviewing, salary and more.

• Job.com - Where else would you start your search but with a job search board with a name like this! More than 1,000 entry level jobs from this site. Use the "search within these results" box at the top to refine your search and you can save your specialized searches as well. There are additional resources on the right hand side of the screen as well as at the bottom of the page.

• CareerRookie.com - This site specializes in entry level jobs, but using that criteria returned more than 300 entry level jobs when I checked. You can narrow your search by using the keywords or other criteria at the top of the page. Below this are additional selection criteria like category, company, city and state. Top of the page has links for resources like resumes, advice and more.

• Monster College - Monster.com's college site had more than 1,130 entry level jobs when I checked the site (and over 2,000 entry level jobs if you searched on this criteria from Monster.com). This site is also geared to college and entry level job seekers and has links at the top of the page for career advice, hired 101, forums and more.

• SimplyHired.com - This site is different from most of the others as it searches across companies and other job boards. There were over 3,000 entry level jobs when I checked the site. Filters are on the left hand side of the page as well as keyword refinement options. Top of the page has links for local jobs, salary trends and employment trends. Save your searches here too.

• Indeed.com - Hard to believe, but the entry level search on this site returned more than 77,000 entry level jobs (sounds like a lot to me). Similar to some of the other job search sites, you can refine your search by putting a location in at the top, or use one of the many refinements on the left hand side of the page. Top of the page has links for forums, salaries and trends.

Good luck in your search.

via secretsofthejobhunt.com

Posted via web from Encouragement For You

What Can You Do Before the Interview to Impress the Interviewer? | EmploymentDigest.net

Let’s say, 2 things come out of the top of my mind is one, be dressed in a very elegant yet sober way. For men, it’s fairly straightforward. You know suits, preferably a white shirt. A white shirt instills security is a kind of gives the feeling of not just cleanliness but transparency or I trust someone that has a white shirt more than someone that has for example, like dark red shirt. Not necessarily on a personal basis, but professionally just looks cleaner, it looks more transparent. You know I guess it’s for a similar reason that you know people in the medical sector, doctors and nurses etc, etc have white dress.

Yes.

Yeah. So that’s one thing. The second thing is make sure your method is clear.

What do you mean by that?

Practice your answers and you will see that as you practice you answers, the content stays the same but the way in which you deliver the message becomes much more confident, clear, sometimes you put more poses in what you say. Sometimes, you have more structured answers. In other words, you come across as a much more confident person once you step into the building rather than having the kind of general anxiety that everyone has when they walk into an interview. So, to summarize, A: you appearance need to be smart clean, goes without saying, have a good shave, you know just comb etc, etc and deliver the message in a confident way.

Fantastic. You said you can predict almost 80% of the questions you are going to get during the interview. Right?

Correct.

Do you have any resource or book that you can recommend to your listeners?

Absolutely. There is one book that I always recommend. That is excellent. The bad news is that it will take about a week full time to read the book back to back. But the good news is that once you have read it back to back, you will feel like you can predict 95% of the unexpected answers which may sound a bit strange. How can you predict 95% of the unexpected? But it will just give you that extra confidence that if you walk what you know will be a tricky interview most likely; you know that they will not catch you of guard. What is the book? It’s a book called Quantitative Questions for Wall Street interviews. It’s written by Timothy Falcon Crack and you can find it on most inline book stores.

Next, I have put together perhaps the greatest gift of all times. Send a blank email to marathonfinancial@getresponse.com to get my 7-day free online course on 5 secret strategies to double your chances of getting an investment banking

via employmentdigest.net

Posted via web from Encouragement For You

reCareered: Experience vs Accomplishments

Many candidates think that employers just look for experience. Most times candidates overlook that most employers may give even more weight to accomplishments. Understanding how an employer views each will shed some light on the importance of both experience and accomplishments in your resume.

Hiring managers view experience as possessing the minimum skill level to accomplish a task. Demonstrating that you have 25 years of experience in a certain function says nothing about how well you've performed. You may have been performing at a minimal skill level for 25 years, or you may have been a guru for 25 years - a hiring manager can't determine how talented you are at a skill merely by the number of years you've been practicing it.

From most candidate's point of view however, unless you expect ageism, number of years of experience signifies greater skill. Candidates regularly assume that listing 25 years of experience performing a job function means that you're really good at that job.

Most hiring mangers and candidates don't interpret experience in the same way. In a sense, they aren't speaking the same language.

Hiring managers use experience as a proxy for minimum qualifications, but rarely hire a candidate who just meets the minimum (unless there's a talent shortage). Today, a hospital might hire a nurse with minimum qualifications, and in 1999 developers could find work if they could even spell Java. For most job openings in today's market, hiring managers can afford to be choosy - there's an oversupply of labor today.

Since hiring managers have their choice of a wide pool of applicants (many times there are thousands of applicants for a job opening today), hiring mangers can seek an employee who will solve their current problems most effectively and who also meets their minimum qualifications.

To simplify things, most hiring managers have problems requiring them to either earn revenue or reduce costs (there are some exceptions). Even if a hiring manager's goal is to increase customer satisfaction, the end result will either increase revenues (customers repeat purchase), or decrease costs (lower returns, rework, warranty claims, customer service costs). The hiring manager has the luxury to choose who will best help them achieve their goals - to increase revenues or reduce costs. How can a hiring manager determine who's the most likely to help? Accomplishments.

Hiring managers use accomplishments as a predictor of future performance. While experience/skills tells a hiring manager what you've done, accomplishments tell a hiring manager what you are capable of doing in the future. However, not all accomplishments matter to a hiring manager. The accomplishments that a candidate is most proud of may not matter to a hiring manager if it doesn't demonstrate solutions to the employer's current problems.

Accomplishments that demonstrate that you've already solved similar problems are relevant to your hiring manager. Use language to describe the problem in a similar way to how the hiring manager describes their own problems. Accomplishments that are measurable with bottom line results allow a hiring manager to compare your results to those of other candidates. If you can demonstrate that you've solved similar relevant problems and that the results you achieved are more impressive than your competitors, a smart hiring manager should want you on their team - because you've shown you can help them reach their goals better than your competition. This can give you a huge advantage.

So let's think about this from the employer's point of view. Most hiring decision processes evaluate experience and accomplishments like this:

1. HR looks at experience first, pre-screening candidates who meet the minimum capabilities of the job, with the minimum skill level or experience. Unless there's a candidate shortage, the hiring manager probably won't need to consider candidates who don't meet all the requirements. The employer wants to screen candidates out who don't meet minimum requirements, and uses Applicant Tracking Systems or other automated processes pre-screen efficiently.

2. If a company receives hundreds or thousands of applicants, there are probably more applicants who meet the minimum criteria than the company can interview. There are probably even more than the company has even time to look at - after all, the HR department is responsible for sourcing candidates for many many positions. It's likely that the HR department had staff reductions and are short handed. Most HR staff are manged by speed measurements rather than effectiveness - they are rewarded to forward a list of minimum qualified candidates quickly, but not rewarded for forwarding the best candidates. HR is likely to forward a list of about a dozen or so candidates - based on the top of a keyword search list from the company ATS, similar to the first dozen results from a Google search.

3. The hiring manager interviews pre-screened candidates and usually chooses the candidate based on accomplishments. The winning candidate typically demonstrates the best ability to help solve the hiring manager's problems because the candidate has solved similar relevant problems, with the most noticeable results.

I'm not forgetting final criteria like fit and budget. Both fit and budget are important constraints that are included in most hiring decisions - but that's not today's topic. I'll examine those issues in future articles. OK, so you realize that both experience and accomplishments are evaluated in your resume. How do you balance between the two? How can you load your resume with both, and keep it under 10 pages? How to use experience and accomplishments in your resume for the best results:

• Treat hard skill experience criteria as keywords: Find the hard skill criteria in a job description, and make sure to include the relevant experience in your resume, expressed in the employer's terms to accomplish resume search optimization. See http://recareered.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-to-search-optimize-your-resume-pt-1.html.

• Use employer value statements: Use employer value statements to demonstrate accomplishments and measurable results expressed as increased revenue or decreased costs. See Employer Value Statements: http://recareered.blogspot.com/2010/03/employer-value-statements-make-your.html.

• Make your accomplishments WIFT: To make sure that your accomplishments are relevant to the hiring manager, demonstrate WIFT (What's In it For Them), rather than WIFM (What's In it For Me). See http://recareered.blogspot.com/2010/03/job-seekers-tell-your-readers-wift.html.

• Use employer's and decision maker's own language: To understand an employers' language you'll need to listen carefully to inside information gathered from your contacts. Use the language that employees used to describe this inside information to express your own experience, accomplishments, problems solved, and results to make them relevant to your potential employer's problems. See Guerrilla Job Search Tactics http://recareered.blogspot.com/2009/11/guerrilla-job-search-tactics.html.

How can you transform your own resume to make experience and accomplishments work for you?

via recareered.blogspot.com

Posted via web from Encouragement For You

Subject Matter Experts Rule! Best of reCareered

Today's employers hire Subject Matter Experts to solve problems. Managers and executives might not like this, but the day of the Generalist is over.

Now that it's easy to completely customize and individualize a resume to demonstrate Subject Matter Expertise, why would a hiring manager give a second glance at a general resume that didn't exactly match requirements?

These five statements summarize why hiring managers look for Subject Matter Expertise over general skills:

• Leadership and management skills are no longer searched for skills: Sure, they are still valued, but these skills are now assumed, and validated during an interview – if you get that interview (http://recareered.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-in-world-can-you-demonstrate.html).

• Contractors and employees are considered equivalent: Distinctions between contractors and W2 employees have blurred, as more workers embrace advantages of project work. Hiring managers started seeking full time employees to solve problems that consultants solve…for less cost. Employers complete workflow under times of headcount reduction by hiring contractors to do the work of employees - sometimes the same employees who were laid off are brought on as contractors. There's not that great a difference in the risk-adjusted cost between employees and contractors.

• Shortened cycles: At the same time, technology life cycles have shortened, and employee turnover has increased.

• Supply and demand: In the midst of the great recession, there's a great supply of workers who describe themselves as generalists. Generalists risk being viewed as a commodity labor source and commodities are purchased based on price over quality. On the other hand, there's a shortage of specific subject matter experts, who command a higher dollar and greater demand for their services - why else would employers still be willing to pay recruiter fees in the midst of a bad recession? (see: http://recareered.blogspot.com/2008/05/who-needs-generalists-anymore.html).

• The costs of delay have increased: As technology cycles shorten and the cost of technology increases, it has become critical for employers to deploy technology and get staff up to speed as quickly as possible. Employers have reacted by hiring problem solvers to make an immediate impact with minimal training or ramp-up time – Subject Matter Experts (see: http://recareered.blogspot.com/2010/03/benefits-of-consultant-think.html).

Back in the days of paper resumes, sometime between the Declaration of Independence and the year 2000, the common knowledge was to write resumes as generalists. Especially for management level professionals, the "rule of thumb" was to write resumes to appeal to a broad audience, as a generalist.
The reason made sense at the time…resumes were printed on paper then. Your resume HAD to appeal to a broad audience, because it was static. The only way you could change it was by changing the cover letter.

But that changed around 2000. Right around the new millennium, job boards exploded, and overtook printed ads. When job boards exploded, HR departments and recruiters responded by purchasing applicant tracking systems, implementing pre-screens that increased efficiency of searches, and enabling hiring managers to micro-target candidates. Hiring managers changed their expectations and expected exact fits, because they could … Subject Matter Experts.

Cover letters stopped being considered as part of a search … why look at the cover letter, when a candidate could easily customize their resume? That's why 96% of hiring managers today make their interview decisions based on the resume, not the cover letter (For the data, see: http://recareered.blogspot.com/2009/12/is-your-cover-letter-obsolete-tradition.html).

There are a number of ways to demonstrate your Subject Matter Expertise, even for those who consider themselves generalists. Here's seven ways to start:

1. Lose the cover letter & customize your resume - http://recareered.blogspot.com/2009/12/is-your-cover-letter-obsolete-tradition.html
2. Use Fishing & Response resumes to customize your expertise for the employer - http://recareered.blogspot.com/2009/09/differentiate-your-resume-with-winning.html
3. Use Resume Search Optimization for resume submissions - http://recareered.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-to-search-optimize-your-resume-pt-1.html
4. Use Online Reputation Management to brand your Subject Matter Expertise online - http://recareered.blogspot.com/2010/01/online-reputation-management-4-steps-to.html
5. Focus on relevant accomplishments over industry and function - http://recareered.blogspot.com/2010/03/employer-value-statements-make-your.html
6. Make every communication address WIFT (What's In it For Them) - http://recareered.blogspot.com/2010/03/job-seekers-tell-your-readers-wift.html
7. Stop looking for a job, start looking for problems you can solve - http://recareered.blogspot.com/2010/03/would-you-stop-looking-for-job-already.html

So, all you generalists out there….How will you change your job search strategies to respond?

via recareered.blogspot.com

Posted via web from Encouragement For You

13 Best Productivity Strategies - mnmal

In this article, I have selected 13 of my best productivity strategies – tried, tested and validated. If you follow all of them to a tee, I can guarantee you that your productivity will double, triple whatever it is right now – or even more. I personally make it a point to follow these steps every day. During the days when I don’t do that, my productivity plummets. The days I do, my productivity soars. The correlation is obvious. I have also compiled a list of the best resources for some of the steps for your further reading.

From the article:

• Set your productivity targets
• Maintain a work environment conducive to productivity
• Have an organized workspace
• Put first things first
• Time box your tasks
• Use the 80/20 rule
• Have a separate list for incoming tasks
• Upgrade your skills
• Know your motivation triggers
• Utilize time pockets
• Hold yourself accountable to your targets
• Wake up early
• Remember To Rest

via mnmal.tumblr.com

 

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

Empty your library

If you've read one of my books, thanks. I write them to be read, so without you, it would be a pointless exercise.

I'm asking a favor: Would you give your copy (or lend, I'm fine either way) of Linchpin away?

Go find someone you care about, hand them the book and insist they read it. I'd consider that a gift of the first order, and I hope they will too.

In fact, don't just do it with Linchpin, do it with all the books that have changed you, regardless of author or age. They're not earning interest unless people are reading them. Ideas that spread, win.

Thanks.

via feedproxy.google.com

Great Idea. I fully support this and have given away about 200 books in the last few months.

Posted via web from AndyWergedal