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eTreat™ is a weekly digital newsletter provided to you by JobDig. Our goal is to deliver you helpful tips and advice on how to find a job and improve or advance your career.
Here's this week's treat...
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Job Hunting Target Practice
By Maureen Anderson
The more you know about what direction you're heading, the easier it will be to get there. Mark De Roo is a career consultant in Holland, Michigan. He says the time you spend defining just exactly what kind of work you're after will pay off later in your job hunt.
(read more...)
Finding Your Uniqueness In Today's Job Market
By Carole Martin
If you have been reading articles or listening to news reports about the job market, it becomes obvious that the number of people currently seeking jobs outnumbers the jobs that are now available.
(read more...)
9 Secrets to Getting the Job You Really Want
By Bill Dueease
Interviewing for a job is a very stressful and difficult process -- made more intense today because so many companies are reducing their workforce, thus increasing the number of applicants for a shrinking number of jobs. The competition for available jobs is fierce. (read more...)
Job Hunting Target Practice
(^top)
By Maureen Anderson
The more you know about what direction you're heading, the easier it will be to get there. Mark De Roo is a career consultant in Holland, Michigan. He says the time you spend defining just exactly what kind of work you're after will pay off later in your job hunt. He thinks you should try to identify what he calls your career anchors. "The term was actually coined by a sociologist at MIT," he says. "It refers to the characteristics that make us unique, that we tend to want our jobs to reflect, that form the basis of who we are."
"How important is your job relative to other aspects of your life?" De Roo asks. "To what degree are you a risk taker? That's what I'm talking about. You need to decide what makes work satisfying, what kind of salary expectations you have, and to what degree do you want to leave a mark on the world."
Being very specific about your career goals is the first step in a job hunt, according to De Roo: "Narrowing your target will make all other aspects of finding a job much easier." If you still have trouble doing that, he suggests returning to your childhood for clues about what will make you happy now. He's written a book, Having a Job Just Like Recess, and thinks part of the task of being a grownup is remembering what delighted us as children. When people asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up, what did you say--before you decided it wasn't realistic? De Roo thinks you may have known all along what you were meant to become.
Finding Your Uniqueness In Today's Job Market (^top)
By Carole Martin
If you have been reading articles or listening to news reports about the job market, it becomes obvious that the number of people currently seeking jobs outnumbers the jobs that are now available.
If you happen to be one of those job seekers, you realize that you are competing against the odds. The question is, "How can you make yourself stand out when there are so many other candidates looking at the same job?" The answer is to "focus" - focus on what makes you unique.
Let's assume that you have an outstanding resume and that you make it to the top of the stack of resumes of people to be called for an interview. You, and maybe nine or ten other equally qualified people for the position, that is.
Because companies have so many candidates to choose from, they are interviewing more people so that they can select the "best." When you are lucky enough to be invited to an interview, it is essential that you be ready to sell yourself, to let the interviewers know what makes you unique, what added value you can bring to the position-in other words, why you are the best person for the job.
By doing some basic preparation, you can determine your uniqueness and where you should focus your attention. The first step in this process is to identify your five strengths. These strengths are the areas where you do very well.
This may take some thought on your part. What are your strengths? Think about previous performance appraisals - what was said or written about you? What would your co-workers or ex-bosses say about you?
- List the skills and experiences you have that would be required in the type of job you are seeking. For instance, a technical job would focus on programs, languages, and platforms, etc.
- Give some thought to those skills in which you excel, those that are referred to as the "soft skills." These skills can be viewed as transferable- you can take them with you to any job you hold. Examples of these skills are your communication and people skills, or your time-management and project-management skills, or your ability to build strong relationships, or your ability to influence others.
- Lastly, think of the personal traits that make you unique. Maybe you never miss deadlines, or perhaps you are willing to do above and beyond what is asked, or perhaps you have a great attitude. (Don't dismiss these traits--many people have been fired for negative personal traits rather than for lack of knowledge).
When you have identified your five strengths, make a list of those strengths and some examples of when those strengths have helped you achieve results on the job. It will be essential that you can not only identify your strengths, but that you also have examples and stories of times when you demonstrated those strengths in the past.
The next step is to look at the job postings and ads. In fact, look at several job postings that would be of interest to you. Your goal is to find key words and phrases. For this exercise, don't limit yourself to geographical location. Look at jobs of interest located anywhere.
When you have several postings, read each word and sentence carefully, taking notes as you do. What are they looking for? What words appear consistently in almost every posting?
Now, take a piece of paper and divide it in half. On one side of the paper write, "What they are looking for," and on the other side, "What I have to offer." Each time you apply for a position, it will be invaluable for you to know how you stand against what they are looking for. This exercise will help you see how close a match you are and where you should focus.
Your next step is to add your uniqueness to the "What I have to offer" list. Some postings will list additional skills required, which make it easier for you to see what is important to them. An example would be, "Must have excellent communications skills, strong organizational skills, and be a willing team player." If these words appear in most of your posting examples, then make sure that these are a part of your focus. Can you work these words and your five strengths into the interview to demonstrate your fit - and then some? Some postings will be more vague about what it takes to get the job done and will require reading between the lines to determine what other skills are necessary.
In summary, by narrowing your uniqueness to these five basic points, you can guide the conversation to include this information. By focusing on five strengths, you will be prepared with examples of times when you have used these strengths.
Whenever possible, give examples to show how you have "been there and done that," and can do it again. It will be necessary to demonstrate that you have what it takes, and then some, to be unique in this market.
When you walk out of that interview room, your interviewers may not remember all five of your points; but if they remember even two of the points that make you unique, you will be ahead of the game!
9 Secrets to Getting the Job You Really Want
(^top)
By Bill Dueease
Interviewing for a job is a very stressful and difficult process -- made more intense today because so many companies are reducing their workforce, thus increasing the number of applicants for a shrinking number of jobs. The competition for available jobs is fierce. Yet, you can beat the competition and actually get hired in the job you really want. Here are nine secrets to consider.
- Discover what you really want out of your work and life. Discover your true passions, desires, beliefs, and talents so that you can paint a picture of your true work and life goals, from your own perspective.
- Develop and define the job you really want. That's right! Design and define the job that will allow you to fulfill your passions, desires, and beliefs and maximize your talents. What you are doing is building your ideal job around what you want as opposed to looking at job opportunities that come along to evaluate. Believe it or not, your ideal job actually exits in more than one way and within the personal parameters you set.
- Find out what companies have positions that meet your ideal position requirements. Look at and research all of the possible companies within the geographical area you designated to discover what positions within these companies you would want. Do not worry about whether they have job vacancies or are in a hiring mode.
- Evaluate the companies that have your desired jobs. Make sure you would want to work for the companies that have your ideal jobs. They need to have integrity and treat their employees and customers in the manner you would want to be treated. Determine whether they operate in an industry that you want to work in.
- Research the companies you selected. Once again, do not be put off or discouraged if the companies are not hiring. Why? Because companies are always looking for the right employees and will have to eventually hire new employees to survive. Determine who actually makes hiring decisions, and what is important to them. Many companies disguise this information through HR departments or hiring committees. If possible, try to find out how you can contact hiring decision-makers directly. Get their e-mail addresses, direct telephone numbers, or find someone in the company who can be a liaison for you.
- Contact the decision-makers and tell them you want to work for them in the specific jobs you chose. Express your enthusiasm for that specific job or jobs. The fewer jobs you designate the better. You want them to know you can be trusted by truthfully exposing your commitment to seeking your dream job, even though they may not have an opening. You are, in essence, recruiting them to work in your dream job. Let them know that you will be very productive because you will excel at the job, and also that you will be a very grateful and energetic employee because you are doing what you love. You are not just asking for a job so they will pay you, but you have targeted a specific job at that company, and you are committed to contributing in that position.
- Ask them if there are any special skills or qualifications you will need to be accepted in the position. If you do not have the sought-after skills and qualifications for the job, either find a way to get them beforehand or see if you can attain them within the company as an employee. This approach directs attention to what the employer wants and away from your resume compared to others' resumes. It will also show them your commitment to attaining that job. Stay in contact to alert employers of your new skills, qualifications, and continued interest.
- If necessary, be willing to take an interim job. This way you can work on the required skills and qualifications, and you can obtain an income while you prepare for the job. You will also be in a better position to take your dream job when it becomes available.
- Get support from somebody during the process. Some of the secret steps discussed above will probably appear to be daunting to you, which is to be expected. Enlist the help of another person to discuss all of the above steps and to map out the best strategy to get your ideal job. This person should be a trusted and strong supporter of your goal, as well as someone who will offer you another perspective to assist in the execution of your plan. Getting your ideal job is an extremely important objective, and it is worth enlisting the help of someone to actually get it.
Final Thoughts
Employers constantly face the problem of finding and surrounding themselves with the right employees who want to work for them, whom they can trust, and who will be very productive with the least amount of supervision. You will definitely get their attention, when you recruit employers for the specific job you chose, because of your honesty, your commitment, your enthusiasm, and your desire to produce for them. In fact, you may even appear to be too good to be true. Many times the people who are filling the jobs that you want are not happy in the position. They are not producing or are causing other problems for the employers. Your request for employment for these specific jobs will give employers an option that they only dream about.
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