Addressing Salary Requirements in a Cover Letter » Blog | Great Resumes Fast

Job advertisements sometimes ask you to specify salary requirements when submitting your application.  But many job seekers feel uncomfortable revealing their desired salary before they’ve even scheduled an interview.  If you’re one of those people, don’t worry—there are some ways to comply with the employer’s request while avoiding having to immediately provide a specific answer.

One technique is to list a range of salaries you’ve earned throughout your career.  For those who have been in the workforce for a while, it is common for this range to be fairly wide.  So you could say, “I’ve earned between $50,000-$75,000 in previous positions, and I would be happy to discuss salary after an interview.”

Another way to address the issue is to offer a ballpark figure.  For instance, you could say, “My current salary is in the low six figures.” Or, “My current compensation, including bonuses, is in the $80s.”  Remember to factor in bonuses, 401(k) matching, mileage reimbursement, and other additional forms of compensation when providing them with a number.

Sometimes employers will specifically ask you what you earn in your current position.  Non-employee workers (subcontractors) can easily avoid this question by stating, “As a contractor, my compensation varies from month to month.”  If you suspect that a position for which you’re applying pays less than you currently earn, you can say, “My current salary is $65,000, but I am willing to negotiate if that is out of the hiring range for this position.”

When asked about salary, the most important thing is to not sell yourself short.  Unless the number you stipulate is significantly above what an employer is willing to pay, it shouldn’t prevent you from getting an interview.  In addition, providing a somewhat general answer about salary requirements can aid you in appearing flexible and willing to negotiate.

For a free resume analysis submit your resume via e-mail to info@greatresumesfast.com. You can also view professionally-written resume and cover letter samples at http://www.greatresumesfast.com.

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How Do You Ask for a Career Change? | Career Rocketeer - Career Search and Personal Branding Blog

If you’re like most people, you start to get a little bored with your work after about two years. By this point, the novelty has worn off and you’ve learned most of what you need to be a contributor to the organization. These two years are also enough time for you to really figure out where you are in the corporate food chain; that is, a fast riser to the top or a bottom dweller. For those in the later category, you may often consider making a change. Of course, that idea can certainly generate a lot of questions in your mind on just how to do that. Well, here’s a strategy for making this type of change.

Here’s the situation: you’ve been in your job for two or three years and your career in this company boils down to just a job. You shouldn’t worry too much about it. This is about the point where most people determine that they need to make a change. They’ve given the company sufficient time to recognize their skills and contribution to the company. If they haven’t been rewarded with bonuses and promotions by now, they assume they aren’t going to get any. So, they begin to adjust their mindset to consider new options.

Jumping out of your company usually isn’t the first consideration. That takes a little more work, since searching for jobs today is difficult for anyone. A quick option is to consider other opportunities within your existing company. If you haven’t done this before, it can appear quite elusive. It really isn’t too challenging, if you follow these simple steps.

1. Make your efforts visible. We judge ourselves by what we are capable of, while others judge us by what we have done. Most people track their accomplishments on their resume. How many people in your company have seen your resume? I would guess very few. This means most people don’t know what you can do. You have to show them what you are capable of. If you want to be known for having talent in a specific area, find projects to work on that require those talents and make sure the most influential people know you are working on it. High profile programs and projects are great for such exposure. Once you’re on one of these projects, use your internal network to promote your activities.

2. Show you can solve problems. There's no better time than today to start stepping up your game and becoming a positive thinking problem-solver. It's too easy to be a blamer. Always ask yourself “what's the problem here?” Don't be afraid to take the lead in solving a complex problem. It's not career risk. It's career enhancement. One problem facing CEOs, as indicated by the IBM Global Business Services report “After The Crisis: What now?”, is in finding targeted approaches for developing revenue, such as through improved service and support. Tight credit and tight budgets are putting the strain on business. Help solve this problem for your company and you will help put some mobility back into your career.

3. Demonstrate your skills in many ways. Don't just focus your skills and talents on your specific area of expertise. Organizations are constantly pushing the limits of the “doing more with less” philosophy. This is unlikely to change anytime soon. The people that move up in this environment are the ones who step up. Managers don’t know what skills you have, so they aren’t going to come around to your cube and ask you to take on projects that may push you outside the skill sets required by your daily tasks. Growth opportunities are available and are on a first-come first-serve basis. Show your management that you can speak by making presentations, show that you can lead by managing teams, or show that you can teach by offering a class to your company.

4. Compare your performance to other attempts. Always promote your successes by quantifying the results to previous attempts by others in your company or from other documented cases. Don't highlight the failure from the previous attempt but focus on the technique or skill you used that differentiates your attempt. One of the big issues organizations face today is flexibility in their operations or being able to respond to changing customer demands. Companies that are flexible in operations must first be flexible in thought. Demonstrating your ability to, not only think outside the box, but solve problems that way is a huge benefit to an organization that wants to grow.

5. Gather endorsements. An endorsement is a validation of your efforts and YOU. Get as many endorsements of your performance as you can. Recognition from others at higher levels is an acknowledgement of your ability to perform at their level. I was sought an endorsement from a billionaire for my efforts. It took me over 18 months to get it. Once I got it, it only took me two weeks to gain the support of other billionaires. Higher level executives are always managing risk, especially to their reputation. By having other executives validate you through an endorsement, you remove the perception of risk from the next executive who will endorse you. The more of that risk you reduce up front, the more likely you’ll get what you want.

6. Make your successes known. This can be a tough one for many people, although there’s a simple solution for this. To gain visibility, you must advertise yourself as much as you can. Many of us don’t like to tout what we have accomplished. Unfortunately, that’s about the only way we can get the good news of our accomplishments to those in power is by marketing them. Executives and managers don’t work around the organization and ask people what they have accomplished recently. If you’re lucky, that happens once a year in a performance review (and you know what benefits that has for your career). The best way to get the word out on your big victories is to build your own marketing team (e.g. your co-workers and friends). Use others to promote your achievements so you don't come off as bragging.

Maintaining a high rate of speed up the corporate ladder is difficult today, to say the least. Often the path isn’t purely vertical. Oh if it could be. Opportunities present themselves in many different ways, such as lateral, upward or downward. Nonetheless, developing a good method for encouraging a change when you need one is essential to continued career growth. After all, no one watches your career but you. These six steps are a great way to convince those at the helm that you are more than ready to take on a bigger role in the company.
Author:

Todd Rhoad, MSEE, MBA is the Director at BT Consulting, a career consulting firm in Altanta, and author of the book, Blitz The Ladder. Stay tuned for his upcoming book, The MBA Owners Manual, coming out this year. Todd can be reached at todd.rhoad@blitzteamconsulting.com.

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What you don't know about your online reputation can hurt you | Social Media | Macworld

by Tony Bradley, pcworld.com

Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from the Net Work blog at PCWorld.com.

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Social networking, and the broader concept of online privacy, have been under some rather intense scrutiny over the past couple of weeks. The issues at Google—voracious indexer of all things Internet—and Facebook—the largest social network and number one most visited site (according to Google)—have made many users more acutely aware of what information is available about them on the Internet. However, your online reputation is being used in ways you may not be aware of, and could cost you.

Users don’t necessarily need to be concerned, but should at least be aware of who they are connected with online, and what they say. No, Big Brother isn’t watching, but potential employers and lenders are.

Increasingly, your online reputation is becoming a deciding factor in whether you get that job, or get approved for that car loan. Businesses have online footprints as well, and the online reputation of the business could impact partner or vendor agreements, or affect the creditworthiness of the business.

Companies and lenders are turning to services like those offered by Rapleaf, a San Francisco-based company focused on social media monitoring. Rapleaf scours the Web to compile your status updates, Twitter “tweets”, the online organizations you join, the sites you link to, and the comments you post and convert it all into a consumer profile called a social graph.

The social graph reveals behavior patterns related to what you like, what you don’t like, what you want, what you don’t want, etc.. Rapleaf presents the service as a marketing tool—enabling companies to target marketing efforts more intelligently, and with more precision than base demographics like age, gender, or location.

At face value that seems like a reasonable use of your online footprint—at least to me. However, some employers or lenders are using information from services like Rapleaf for more invasive purposes. Using the Rapleaf social graph, or any other aggregate of an individual’s online presence, companies can dive deeper into your social networks and see who you’re connected to.

A bank considering you for a credit card can scan your social network and identify other users connected to you that are already customers of the bank. The bank can analyze the payment history and credit stability of those customers, and make assumptions about you based on them. The presumption is that birds of a feather flock together, so if you’re social network is filled with credit rejects, you are also probably a bad credit risk.

Who you know online, and what you don’t know about your online reputation may prevent you from getting a job or credit card. Even worse, sloppy online sleuthing or mistaken identity could lead to your rejection, and you may never even know why.

A friend—we’ll call him Greg—was hired by a company and moved his family across the country to accept the job. The company had conducted a background check on Greg prior to hiring him, but subsequently launched a more exhaustive background check about a month after Greg had started working for them.

One day, Greg was called in to see his manager and was told that his services would no longer be needed. He was asked to clear his desk and escorted from the building with no further explanation. His family hadn’t even finished unpacking from the cross-country move, and Greg was faced with the shock of unemployment.

Thankfully, after some pushing Greg was able to learn that the company had fired him because the subsequent background check had uncovered a criminal background and outstanding warrants the company was unaware of. Of course, Greg was also unaware of the criminal background and outstanding warrants because the company had uncovered information on the wrong “Greg”.

The company put the burden of proof on Greg to produce evidence that it was the wrong Greg, which Greg did and eventually got his job back. Others might not be so lucky, though.

When you don’t get the job, get turned down for a loan, or get rejected for a credit card, you may never really know if you were rebuffed on your own merits, or as a function of the crowd you choose to associate with online, or due to completely mistaken identity.

Rapleaf offers a service to discover your online footprint and get a view of what others might see on your social graph. Google offers a similar tool—the Google Privacy Dashboard—which presents an overview of the accounts and information you are connected with through Google.

Take advantage of tools like these to monitor your own online reputation and keep your online persona clean. What you don’t know can hurt you.

[You can follow Tony on his Facebook page, or contact him by e-mail.]

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Personal Branding Interview: Anna Bernasek | Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel

Today, I spoke to Anna Bernasek, who is the author of The Economics of Integrity, and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other national media. In this interview, Anna talks about the economics of integrity, why integrity isn’t just a personal issue, and more.

What are the economics of integrity?

I like to think of it as the sweet spot of the economy. Start with these two statements which we tend to accept: Following your own self interest benefits everyone (Adam Smith). Acting with integrity benefits everyone (conventional morality). The conventional view is that these two statements are mutually exclusive.

The truth is there is a place where those statements intersect. That place is the economics of integrity and it’s the sweet spot of our economy. When acting with integrity is in our self interest we get a double payoff: economic growth and societal benefits. This opportunity often exists in the short run but it’s always there in the long run. The only way to create lasting wealth is to act with integrity. Therefore the economics of integrity is all about the link between integrity and wealth creation. It’s a very different view of what actually drives economic activity and wealth creation.

Why do you say integrity isn’t merely a personal issue?

Conventionally we tend to think of integrity as a moral issue, entirely up to the individual. But integrity has an economic value. It’s our most valuable economic asset and it underpins all of our commercial dealings. To understand why, you need to see integrity as a relationship of trust. On one side of a transaction is someone acting with integrity, say a seller. On the other side is someone who buys into the integrity of the seller, who essentially trusts the seller enough to buy the product.

Once you have a relationship of integrity and trust you have an asset that produces economic value. Integrity benefits everyone, the buyer and the seller. That means it’s a shared asset that makes us wealthy. So integrity isn’t just a personal issue, it’s a collective issue. It’s not just about private morality but good economics. In fact, it’s our greatest opportunity today to generate wealth and drive the economy forward.

If integrity is so valuable, why aren’t more people proactively protecting it and investing in it?

That’s an excellent question. I think there are two reasons. First, in the world of business we typically believe that if you act with integrity you probably won’t get ahead. My hope with this book, my talks and writing, is to show people that’s just not true. The only way to generate long term wealth is to act with integrity. And in fact, this isn’t my theory. This is actually the way our market economy works. Second, we have moved from focusing on the long term to focusing on the short term. That has increased pressure in the economy to look for short term cheating opportunities. Part of what people need to think about with integrity is building lasting wealth. If you’re just in it to make as much money as you can, as fast as you can, and hang everything else, chances are you’re not thinking about integrity.

How can companies leverage integrity to succeed in business?

It amounts to building trust with your stakeholders: customers, employers, shareholders and community. All companies are building trust to some extent; they have to in order to sell. But the successful companies are actually thinking long and hard about their relationships and how they can make them stronger. A good place to start is to ask yourself whether you can offer customers a satisfaction guarantee. If you can’t, you need to think long and hard about why it’s ok for customers not to be satisfied with your product or service.

What happened to the brands of the big banking executives in the financial crisis? Is it hard to trust them now?

From the public’s point of view, I think the big banking executives have shown that they’re morally bankrupt and untrustworthy. To take trillions of dollars of taxpayer’s money and not be humble or feel any responsibility to the public is quite simply incredible. As far as the bank’s customers are concerned, I’d think the ones that did badly on the advice of the banks would feel hesitant to trust them. And as far bank employees are concerned I don’t think they’ve ever felt much trust.

Bankers are in it for the money and their aim is to make as much money as they can while it lasts. Most investment bankers know there’s a time when their banking career will probably be up. So all in all I think it is hard to trust the top guys. The question for their business is whether they have enough clients who weathered the financial panic ok and still trust the products and services enough. It seems like the answer is yes.

——–

Anna Bernasek’s writing about finance and the economy has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, Fortune, TIME, The Huffington Post, Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald newspaper and the Australian Financial Review. She has commented on economics as a guest on broadcast media including CNN, CNBC, public television and National Public Radio. Her first book, The Economics of Integrity, was published in February 2010 by Harper Collins. She has been interviewed by publications such as TIME, US News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review and by radio networks and bloggers across the United States, Europe and Australia. She has also presented her work at conferences including the annual meeting of the Business Council, The Harper Studio/Vanity Fair ReSet Business Forum, the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association summit and the NRC Focus seminar in Amsterdam.

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Time Management Tips & Career Advice by Career Expert Tai Goodwin : CAREEREALISM

By CAREEREALISM-Approved Expert, Tai Goodwin

How often have you said, “If I only had more time,” or, “I wish there were more hours in the day?” We say that often intending to imply that if we only had more time then we would get the rest we need or slow down to a more normal pace. But chances are if we did have more hours in the day, we would immediately fill them up with more things to do instead of creating the space we need to take a much-needed break.

We don’t really need more time in the day. What we really need are strategies to better manage our time. The concept of time management is not new: most of us have schedules, planners and reminder notes a plenty. What’s lacking though is the prioritization, decisions, and boundaries needed to ensure the schedule works not just for your job, family, friends and commitments, but the schedule has to work for you as well.

I often hear consistently from clients is they are overworked and reaching a burn out point. And when I ask them if they have purposely carved time-out for themselves and protected that time regardless of who makes a demand, they look at me as if I have just grown another head. Too many of us put time for ourselves last on the list. It slip our minds that if we get run down (and it really is more of a “when” than “if”) we put ourselves at a higher risk of being out of commission. I’ve often wondered why we are only willing to take a rest once we get sick or reach a point of exhaustion.

Effective management of time begins with setting priorities. Start by making a list of all the task you have to do this week. Once you’ve got a completed list, go back to the top of your list and add your name. If your name or doing something for you was already on the list, give yourself a pat on the back and make sure it is at the top. I recently suggested to a client creating more time in her schedule for herself, started with her recognizing she is more important than her job. Maybe for you, it’s something or someone else that has become more important than you to where you constantly sacrifice your needs and wants in a way that borders on unhealthy.

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Now that you have your list, you have some decisions to make. Unless you’ve done a really good job of filtering, you probably have a list that is way too long to be realistic.  Make a first decision to carve out time for you, it doesn’t have to be a big chunk of time to start with. Try setting aside 15 minute blocks of time for yourself. Use the time to walk, read, take a nap, and call a friend. Make a list of things you can do in 15 minutes so when you take the time you don’t spend your block of time trying to figure out what to do. Other decisions: Decide on the number of things that are number one priorities. Will you have four or just two things that must get done? Choose what you can realistically handle. That does not mean you won’t get to other things, it just allows you to take some of the pressure off that comes with feeling like you have to do everything now. Please note this is not procrastinating, you’re not putting it off out of avoidance or fear. You are wisely taking control of your clock and taking care of yourself.

Lastly, you want to set boundaries. Look for ways to set healthy limits in your relationships. This includes relationships at work and with friends. It also means setting limits and keeping promises to yourself. Most of us wouldn’t dream of breaking a promise we made to someone else, and if we did, we’d spend at least a week beating ourselves up about it. But we break promises to ourselves all the time, crossing the boundaries we’ve set for ourselves. Until we matter enough we will continue to dishonor ourselves by breaking our promises and running over the boundaries we’ve set.

While it’s true no one gets more than 24 hours in a day, we still have power over how productive we are by managing our time. Managing time is more than just the ability to layout an organized schedule. True time management means setting priorities that communicate clearly what’s really important, making wise decisions that help set realistic goals, and setting firm boundaries that allow us to keep the promises we make to ourselves and others.

via careerealism.com

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Five Myths Perpetuated By Big Brand Employers | Chris Bailey :: Thinking Big Thoughts on Business, Work, and Life

I wish I didn’t have to write this post. I wish it wasn’t required to point out something that seems so damn obvious. But it has become tragically necessary based on far too many things said and emailed to me lately. Therefore, I’m going to attempt to clear up an unfortunate misconception that blinds too many otherwise smart individuals. It’s called Big Brand Blindness and its based on a lie that seems to carry so much weight:

An individual with little-to-no “big brand” professional experience isn’t able to be effective in a large corporate environment.

To which I can only say, “Bullshit!” It’s pure crap and constructed from at least five myths. Let’s take a look at each one that unfairly stigmatizes the hard work of professionals in small and medium enterprises (I’m including nonprofits here with SMEs):

Myth #1: You can’t cope with complexity.
Yes, I get it. Your megasized multinational company is an elaborate, convoluted leviathan that defies the laws of reason. Guess what? Someone who has built a career within an SME also understands complexity. That’s because – unlike in Big Brand – we don’t have the luxury of specialization. We can’t and that’s honestly to our benefit. We wear two, three, sometimes four hats because that’s what is needed to complete the project and make the customer happy. We’re experts at creativity, constantly doing more with increasingly fewer resources. We can cope with complexity because we live it every single working day.

Myth #2: You can’t handle pressure.
Want to know what pressure is? When Big Brand has a bad quarter, looks like Wall Street won’t be happy. If an SME has a bad quarter, it could mean the end of the company. Now which one seems more pressure-intensive to you? And because SMEs are typically closer to their customers, there’s a tremendous amount of pressure to keep them satisfied. If they’re unhappy and tell others, there goes a potentially huge chunk of business.

Myth #3: You don’t know how to communicate with executives.
As if multinational corporate executives are some strange race of aliens that require knowledge of a special language only learned by toiling through the hierarchy of Big Brand. Communications skills are universal. If you know how to get your point across successfully to your SME’s senior leaders or Board of Directors, I guarantee the communication capability translates fine to the CEO or CMO of Big Brand.

Myth #4: Your skillset (feel free to plug in expertise, knowledge, etc) doesn’t scale.
This one drives me batshit. We’re not talking about going from CEO of a two-person office to the CEO of Big Brand (though you might argue that the CEO of an SME could run a company like aol., BP, Lehman Brothers just as well as their current counterparts). Just because you have experience within Big Brand doesn’t necessarily mean you’re any more qualified to do work at another Big Brand. I’m further convinced this myth is a smokescreen because you’ll never know if it does actually scale. You’ve already cast your judgment and you’ve already missed the talent in front of your nose. Good luck with that.

Myth #5: You don’t really know about business.
The coup de grâce. Let’s face it, this is what’s really being said every single time the charge of not having enough Big Brand experience is leveled toward a candidate. There’s a sense perpetuated by those within Big Brand that business is only truly conducted at the multinational level. SMEs are small potatoes where the real lessons of managing P&L, budgets, employees, customer relations, and executive expectations still mean little in comparison. Really? Sorry but I strongly disagree with that small-mindedness.

For my parting shot, I’m going to go out on a limb with my own hypothesis for what’s to blame (at least partially). If we’re honest, there’s some posturing going on – particularly when it comes to consulting agencies who work with Big Brand. The desire to fill the stables with people from a well-known, Fortune 500 corporation isn’t so much about their ability or expertise as it is about their prestige (“Oooh, he worked for Big Brand, he must be smart. And that’ll look great on our website’s About Us page.”) There’s a mystique that people like to attach to work done at Big Brands. Some of it is truly well-deserved and to be respected. Some of it is unspectacular but lauded because Big Brands get attention. And quite a bit of it is built on non-creative, safe, ineffective adherence to not rocking the Big Brand boat. In reality, work done within a Big Brand isn’t any better or worse than work done within an SME. So let’s stop with all this shallow Big Brand Blindness where candidates get overlooked not because of the quality of their past or potential of their future work, but just because of for whom their past work was done.

So, let’s hear it. If you’re currently working inside a big brand, what’s your take? And if you’ve been passed over due to big brand blindness, what have you done to heal this unfortunate affliction? Lay it down in the comments.

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Working Through Your Imperfections During Job Search

We all have something.  Something we’d like to change about ourselves or our background.

Nobody’s perfect.  And most of us don’t even come close.  After all, our imperfections define us to some extent.

Why are these imperfections so apparent?

During big moments in your career, the goal is to stand out.  So we spend an awful lot of time looking inward and outward.   For unique aspects of ourselves to highlight:

• Working with a career expert you may uncover a list of key strengths.
• Writing your resume is about uncovering the gems (key accomplishments) of your career.
• If you take the time to write your career story, you can find the long, deep lines of your experience.

It’s inevitable that this process will uncover a sore spot here or there.  And your ability to ignore or safely manage around your “sore spots” can be a difference maker.

So what are some of those pesky imperfections?

1.  Inconvenient breaks in our career. Includes extended gaps due to a lay-off or family emergency.  Usually all easy to explain if you get the chance and have a willing audience.  Unfortunately for many, the chance to show that your benefits outweigh any negatives is often limited.  Solution? Well, networking of course.  Because then your resume is not solely responsible for your success.  Someone else who learned something great about you can share that knowledge with others.

2.  Missing the movie star gene. You may have something about your appearance that you don’t like.  Perhaps you are a bit age conscious (maybe for good reason in that you’ve experienced age discrimination during job search).  Do your ears hang low?  Are they too big (in your humble opinion)?  Solution? It has to do with your attitude.  Positive and confident so that anything else about you becomes a non-issue.  Believing in yourself and displaying a can-do posture.  Something I’ve called confidence marketing.

3.  Experiencing a career crisis. Job search and crisis at the same time can make you feel a bit broken.  And everyday someone asks: “what are you looking for?”.  And, when asked, you either tell people what they want to hear or you fumble around. Solution? Get some help.  And do it earlier rather than later.  Hire a career expert who can walk you down a trail to discover what you really love to do.  It is not always obvious.  The alternative? Find another job in the career you’re not sure about . . . and potentially be back looking for a job within 3-6 months.

This is just a short list. Designed to get you thinking about something that might be holding you back.

What’s your something?

And how is it affecting you along the way?

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