The Triple-A Job Search Approach

The Triple-A Job Search Approach What is the key to a successful job search? It is the three As. In prior blog posts I spoke about using a brag book, the need to stay in front of your network, the importance of networking, how to stand out and how to use a bio, but the focus here is more broad. These prior blog posts provide specific, tangible tools to help you manage your career but what are the overarching strategies that are the key to a successful job search in this current economic climate? It is what I refer to in my career management methodology as the three A’s: Attitude, Activity and Assertiveness. You can have the most amazing credentials in the world and the most polished resume but if your Three A’s are not in perfect order, your job search will likely falter, or at a minimum, will not allow you to land the job you deserve in the shortest time possible. Let’s look at each of these key dimensions. 1) Attitude: A positive, energetic, hopeful attitude while in job search mode is such an important element in this process. Hiring managers and recruiters can sniff a desperate, negative and lackluster approach from miles away. This approach won’t help at all in the current economy. Let’s look at how a healthy attitude plays out with a standard interview question. Let’s assume I was laid off due to an elimination of a layer of management. Interviewer: “Matt, why are you no longer working at XYZ Company?” Poor attitude: Me: “Well, I have to tell you, my boss and I never really got along that well. My clients loved me but I never really hit it off with her. She seemed to play favorites and I never felt like I had a fair shake. It’s all for the best anyway because I don’t think I was a good fit for XYZ.” Positive attitude: Me: “Frankly, I never thought that high-performing employees would get hung up in a layoff; however, business decisions had to be made. My entire layer of management was eliminated. I know it wasn’t personal. While I can’t say I agree with it, I can respect a company that makes difficult decisions. Rather than focus on what was out of my control, I decided right away to leave on a high note by finishing strong on my assignments and transitioning my work in a timely manner. Now, I am being very selective in what role I accept next because I want to make sure to land in a spot where my talents can best be utilized and where I can make an impact to the company.” So, as you can see, by fostering positive attitude, you can leave a positive impression during an interview. This attitude will serve you well in other aspects of your job search, too. A great example is during the heavy networking phase of your search. It is important to remain upbeat with your networking partners. If you are executing your search properly, you should be going after the influential players and power connectors (the most well-networked people) in your industry and region. These folks are extremely busy and surely will not take a networking call or meeting with a downtrodden jobseeker. Not a chance. 2) Activity: You can have the best attitude in the world, but if you are not talking to these power connectors, not attending events, meetings and conferences, and if you are not applying to jobs regularly, then you are going to have a tough time accelerating the job search process. Activity yields results. It always does. Ask any sales professional. They all use statistics that tell them how many leads they need to call on, how many need to be converted to a face-to-face sales pitch, and how many of these will yield a sale. Job search is the same way, except you are the product and salesperson wrapped in one. Here’s a list of some important activities that you should be participating in every day, week and month. This goes for whether you are out of work and those who are gainfully employed: Face-to-face networking meetings with power connectors LinkedIn invitations Networking events Professional organization meetings Speaking with recruiters Applying for jobs This type of activity is crucial. By getting out there and meeting people, even the same people repeatedly (the average networking partner forgets about you in about seven days), you start to become ingrained in your connections’ minds as the person to remember for job leads and other important referrals. Please don’t lose sight of the need to apply to open positions, too! It is very easy to get swept up in the networking process. So much so that you forget to apply to open jobs. You need to set aside time to do both. When the process comes together, you will see an open job and then tap your robust network to find someone with influence to pluck your resume out of the “black hole” and right onto the hiring manager’s desk. 3) Assertiveness: Searching for your next position also takes the right degree of assertiveness. Assertiveness comes into play in several areas. First, when you are trying to get networking appointments with power connectors, you may have to follow up on two or three different occasions. Why? Not because networking partners don’t care about you or don’t want to be bothered, but because they are extremely busy and just have trouble keeping up with all that they have on their plate. Let’s look at an example. People have called me a power connector in the Philadelphia area, particularly in Human Resources and in the pharmaceutical industry. I’m not sure of this but let’s go with it. I have a full time job, a side business and a volunteer position. This creates many emails, phone calls and meetings. If you send me an email, it could likely get buried under other pressing issues. Does this mean I don’t want to connect with you? No, not at all, so I suggest you send another follow up. Build rapport, show credibility, and show me that you believe in mutually beneficial networking. The same concept applies to a call or email to a recruiter that has an opening that fits your background. Polite, courteous and timely follow-up shows interest, passion and persistence. These are traits that any employer would likely covet. Of course, there is always a limit. Too much of a good thing is always problematic. Many jobseekers are timid and don’t follow up enough. If that’s you then remember a good amount of follow-up is appreciated and can really make a difference. Summary Conducting a cutting-edge job search requires many tactical elements such as a resume, cover letter, bio, target list of companies and brag book; however, if you also remain focused and practice the Three A’s of Attitude, Activity and Assertiveness, you will likely land your next position sooner and with less stress! RELATED: 3 Smart Ways to Boost Your Job Search and Enjoy the Ride. Author: Matthew Levy is a well-rounded HR  professional and Career Coach with fifteen years of broad experience in both  specialist (e.g., recruiting) and generalist (e.g., HR business partner) roles  at blue-chip companies, including Merck, Amgen and Johnson Johnson. In addition to his full time work, Matt founded a  career coaching practice, Corner  Office Career Coaching. Follow Matt on  Twitter.

Overcome the willpower myth

Overcome the willpower myth This post is sponsored by Tempur-Pedic because we think you deserve to get your best nights sleep every night. Ive been reading a lot about willpower to find out how to get more. It turns out that we only have a very little bit, and we cannot be demanding it of ourselves all day long because that would exhaust our supply and make us nuts. Which is, of course, what I do. But I have watched the farmer for a few years now, and I see that he substitutes three things for willpower which allows him to seem to have willpower beyond his actual willpower reserve. Here they are: 1. Rigid schedule It came to me when I started to understand the ebb and flow of the pigs. There are about 500 pigs on the farm at any given time. Someone who does not do routine wellsomeone like mewould say, Ill feed the pigs later. But the Farmer gets up every morning, at 6am, eats breakfast with us, and then feeds the pigs. And hes blown away by the fact that every single morning I think we need to make a fresh decision about what we are going to do that morning. He is like, what? Are you kidding? Were eating breakfast and doing chores. So then I pretend to have a schedule but really just sort of hope for willpower and watch it flutter away while I do things like let the kids play videos instead of music practice. Or I schedule a conference call when Im supposed to be writing. And really, I never write at the same time every day anyway. If I did, then surely Id have more regular posts on this blog. Which I have never been able to do. Despite wanting and promising myself and my editor that I will. 2. If then thinking The Farmer exhibits another skill that all how-to-have-willpower gurus say you must have: If.. then.. thinking. You know that expression, when the sun shines, make hay? He does that. Literally. He cuts hay when he thinks the sun will shine, and he bales the hay thats what hes doing in this picture the minute the hay is dry, and there is no complicated decision-making process about whether he should read the new issue of New York magazine instead. On the other hand, I am tortured by the problem of what I am supposed to be reading vs what I am actually reading. He is rarely tortured because there is no room for tortured thoughts in his schedule. He has so many if-then statements that are an internalized guide to his life. The New York Times explains this as using behavior modification rather than willpower. And after being with him for a few years, I find that I internalize those behaviors as well. I know, for example, when he takes cattle to market (farm euphemism for killing them) we all wake up earlier and eat breakfast earlier. I dont lay in bed considering my options. So I am trying to implement more if-then statements in my life. Like, if Im having an emotional breakdown then I stay away from bagels. That would be a good one for me. 3. Accurate personal assessments The problem with coming up with how I want to structure my life is that I have to see where things really are falling apart. The farmer thinks I have a fantasy life of how much structure I have in my life, but really, I know Im all over the place. We always like to read about what we know a lot about. Like, I like to read about career management. Of course, Ive read enough to last a lifetime, but Im still fascinated. Like Chris Anderson points out that Malcolm Gladwell says you need 10,000 hours of doing something to become an expert. And after three years at a job, youve put in your 10,000 hours. So youve mastered it. Its time to move on. What a great argument for job hopping. The Farmer likes to read about willpower. Because he has so much. Or he looks like he has so much. So he also read that people have obfuscated views of what their life is really like. (To be clear, the Farmer is not the type of guy who would use the word obfuscate in a sentence, but he is the type who would ask what it means, so we are a good pair.) Anyway, people who do not have good self-discipline, which I think is the cause of not having willpower, are people who have an obfuscated sense of their days. The Farmer told me, for example, that maybe I should write down every day that I run the hill outside our house. I wanted to tell him to shut the [ ] up, but I have internalized the rule if the Farmer is in the conversation, then that word is off limits. So I ignore him. But I confess that when Tempur-Pedic sent me the Fitbit I was enthralled. It tracks sleep patterns and exercise patterns, both of which are always cited as key elements to a self-disciplined life. So I started checking things out. I can see why people say that when you keep track of what you are doing toward your goal, you reach your goal faster. I can see that, because to get the full benefit of the Fitbit, I would need to enter a lot of data, which I would only do if I were really really committed to improving all those metrics in my life. Sadly, I think I am more oriented to buying a quick fix. So, for example, I can tell you that when I had a bunch of disposable income, I bought a Tempur-Pedic mattress and absolutely loved it and its a lot more fun to spend money to get a good nights sleep than to collect data about getting a good nights sleep. So, maybe you think I sound hopeless. But I dont think I am. Because reviewing all the data points at the Fitbit web site made me think Im going to keep track, really keep track, of how often I run the hill. Because it feels really safe to have an if-then rule in life rather than searching for willpower. And also, I want to tell you something: When the Farmer is gone, (which is almost never, but still, sometimes he has to see a friend or something,) I am in charge of the farm. And sometimes I find myself looking forward to that moment, just so I can feel what self-discipline without willpower feels like: If the sun goes down then the chickens go back to the coop.

How to Advance Your Medical Assistant Career

How to Advance Your Medical Assistant Career How to Advance Your Medical Assistant Career Becoming a medical assistant is one of the most interesting and potentially lucrative careers these days. Even though you are never going to make as much money as a doctor, if you are a medical assistant, you are entering a job field where the opportunities are continuing to grow each year. As the generation of baby boomers gets older in the United States, the need for medical assistants and other medical-related professionals is more urgent than ever before. These job fields are growing annually, and will continue to grow even if the economy goes through a bad spell. With that in mind, here is a look at MedicalAssistantEDUs guide to become a medical assistant. The guide will help you as it presents a step-by-step path that you can follow to becoming a medical assistant. There are multiple paths possible, including traditional college attendance as well as  Online Medical Assistant Programs. But if you have already gone through all that trouble, you may be wondering how you can advance your position as a medical assistant in the coming years. What we advise is for you to find your first job at a reputable establishment, where you can grow as a person and as a medical assistant. Choose a job that pays you well, but also challenges you so that you learn all the skills you need to know as a medical assistant. Most of the best jobs in the medical assistant field require two years of experience as a MA. What this means is that you will have to spend some time working at jobs that may not be the very best. But it does not mean they will be terrible either. There are some very good medical assistant jobs around the country where you do not need any experience. All you have to do is get your foot in the door, and ensure you are indispensable when you are working on a daily basis. When you have completed your first two years at a reputable establishment, you may want to find work elsewhere. If you have those two years of experience, and glowing recommendations from the places where you have worked in the past, you should have no trouble getting a position at a hospital, clinic or doctor’s office of your choosing. And you will most definitely earn more money as well, because you are one of those assistants they absolutely want to hire. If you are determined to make your medical assistant career a success, you have to view every aspect of the job as important. There are some tasks you may enjoy, such as talking with patients or giving them injections. But there are others you may not like, such as stocking the shelves, answering phones or cleaning up certain parts of the clinic. But if you want to make it as a MA, you have to prove that you are willing to do all the necessary work to keep the hospital or clinic running at 100 percent efficiency. Only when you put the job and the clinic above your own interests will you prove to be a world class medical assistant.

Future Proofing Your Recruitment Strategy

Future Proofing Your Recruitment Strategy Modern recruiters know it is not good enough to simply advertise jobs and approach candidates on social media. The modern recruiter knows that there is so much more to recruitment than being able to find candidates. If you are stuck in a cycle of just finding candidates, how will you ever know if a person actually wants to work for your business or if they are just looking for a job! More so if a candidate is not engaged with you brand before the recruitment process starts how can you, or they, know that it will be a good fit when it comes to behaviours and values? Only last week we saw an excellent example of this. On the show ‘Whos the boss’ local Aberdeen brewery Brew Dog was featured as they were recruiting for area sales managers. The show was designed to track the use of an alternative hiring process which gave the hiring control to the employees of the company, rather than the boss. The candidates, selected by a recruitment agency in London, turned up on the first day of a week long interview process in their suits and boots. This made me cringe, the lead up to this point had featured the Brew Dog team who go to work in jeans and t-shirt, most of  the guys have have beards and most of the employees have either piercings or tattoos. To me this looked like an ultra cool place to work where your performance is valued rather than what you wear to work. Unsurprisingly two of the candidates left the process early and one was offered the job, he accepted at the time but didnt start with Brew Dog in the end. The recruitment process was a fai lure. If the candidates had been engaged in the Brew Dog brand and culture, would they have turned up in corporate style suits? In fact, would they have applied? Probably not, it was obvious from their arrival in the office that they were uneasy and possibly shocked by the office style, never mind 2 out of the three candidates had no experience in the job their agency shortlisted them for! I am all up for transferable skills but it is not likely to work when there is no cultural fit. With the onset of the importance of employer branding, a new era of talent competition is coming and the ones to come out on top will be the companies who engage their talent pools. Until recently recruiters from both agencies and direct employers boasted about the size of their database and used this as a definition of success. Talent pool engagement is the future of recruitment With the skills shortage in various industries tightening all the time, the engagement of talent pools is gaining more importance by the day. It is no longer good enough to have a huge database of candidates, now you need a huge database of engaged candidates that want to work for your business. It’s all about content! In the same way that business creates huge amounts of data and opportunities to use data, we also create lots of opportunities for content to engage our talent pools. Here are a few ideas; Employee profiles A day in the life of CEO’s blog Live speaking events Social responsibility efforts Graduate program stories Employee career stories The list can go on and on, but I won’t bore you as every business is different and will have a different story to tell. Have a brainstorming session with your marketing and communications colleagues and see what opportunities for content there are in your business. Need help? Book a call with me here to talk through how to get started. What Channels Can We Use To Engage Talent Pools? Each business will be different as your audiences will use different channels, but here are some you may want to consider: Social media People like to choose what websites and social platforms they visit. To ensure your content is engaging your target audience you need to know where your target audience is and how they use the platform. Social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, are by far the biggest but be careful not to intrude peoples’ personal space. Many people see Facebook as a personal social network and will be reluctant to engage with their current employer, never mind a potential future employer. Talk to your employees, find out which networks they use and understand how they could be engaged and which networks would be suitable/unsuitable. Mobile app Mobile apps have a huge benefit of being able to push updates to peoples phones and tablets. The biggest challenge here is, there needs to be a reason to download the app. For candidates the reason is simple, they want to work for you. It is a lot more difficult to persuade the rest of your target audience. If your company already has a widely used app, it could be made easier if your target audience has already downloaded your app and you have the ability to engage them there. If not think about making sure your content is easily found and utilised by news feed apps by including rss feeds on your website and blog. Offline media Offline media like newspapers and TV are much more likely to pick up on good news stories like contract awards, the creation of new jobs and social responsibility efforts. Be careful to engage a public relations professional to manage any potential negative spin that could be picked up on by the media. Emails Mass emails can be a great way of putting your message in front of your target audience. It can also be a great way to spam people so be careful not to dis-engage your target audience. A few careful steps can be taken to make sure you do not spam; don’t automatically enrol people without their permission, carefully decide your content calendar to engage people, but not too regularly and seek feedback to make sure you efforts are engaging. Future talent To be truly sustainable in your recruitment strategy you need to be looking at what the long term goals of your business are. One of the most basic goals of any business is long term success. Long term success means you need great talent now and in the future. To ensure you have great talent in the future you need to start engaging tomorrows talent today. Consider engaging with university students and possibly even younger school kids, there are lots of opportunities to do so if you look for them. Contact your local university or schools and they will likely be excited to be able to offer their students career talks and events. How Do We Know It Is Working? Its all about data! Most of the channels you use will be able to provide you with data on how people are interacting with your content. This will be presented in different ways such as views, clicks, social engagement and interactions. The more difficult audience to track is students but ask the organiser to perform a survey or to gain feedback from the students. Why Is It Important? By engaging your talent pools you are ensuring that in the future you will be able to recruit the people you need to continue your businesses success. Attracting people into your ATS or talent pools is not enough, you need to engage them. By engaging with your talent pool you will help people decide if they WANT to work for your company and if they are a cultural fit. You will attract more talent and hire better, more engaged, employees and you will create a truly sustainable recruitment strategy. Image: Shutterstock

This is how you deal with your horrible boss at work

This is how you deal with your horrible boss at work While we sincerely hope youre blessed with pleasant supportive bosses for the rest of your days, theres a high chance that at some point in your life youre going to have to deal with a horrible boss. Its not a particularly nice thing to go through, it can leave you feeling drained and demotivated, and at worst, can lead you to quitting your job and seeking work elsewhere. But there are some things you can do to relieve some of the pressure. Here are our suggestions for dealing with your horrible boss in the most mature and sensible way possible, without creating any toxic tension thats going to make your work environment even worse. Avoid any shouting matches (not cool) and instead try to understand your boss point of view more. Heres how Are they actually that bad? The first thing you need to do is take a step back and consider whether they are actually as horrible as you think they are. Sometimes in a high pressure work environment it can be easy to take things personally did they perhaps assign you a task you didnt particularly want to complete, or maybe they werent keen on one of your ideas? Its easy to let things like this influence your opinion of someone. In fact, even the fact that theyre youre superior, with ultimate decision making authority, can be enough to rub you up the wrong way. Try to assess the situation objectively. Are they really being unfair or overly negative? Or are you taking things a bit too personally? Try explaining the situation to a trusted friend or family member to see what they think theyre likely to tell you straight if youre acting out of line. Remember theyre human too They might seem like some Miranda Preistly-esque demi-god but remember that theyre actually just another human being, so try and work out what makes them tick. What annoys them? What are their goals? What pressures do they face? Remember, theyll likely have their own boss above them setting their goals and directives, so try and put yourself in your boss shoes. Once you work out what motivates them to act the way you do, its not about making excuses for their behaviour, but understanding their point of view. This means that if you do decide to speak to them about certain issues, you can address the underlying motivations behind their behaviour and youre more likely to make them understand your point of view. Dont be afraid to set boundaries If your boss rings you up at 11pm at night demanding something from you, they need to know thats not ok. As long as youre completing the work youre supposed to, and working your set hours, dont let your boss place extra stress and responsibility on your shoulders that youre not being paid for. This can have a really detrimental effect on your mental health, your personal relationships and your job satisfaction. Make sure you tackle the issue sooner rather than later, as the longer you let them get away with it, the more theyll expect from you. If they cross the line of acceptable work etiquette, speak to them in person and let them know how you feel. They should hopefully respect your decision, but if they dont, youre within your rights to take the issue to a senior member of staff or the HR department. Remember theyre not perfect Sometimes its easy to fall into the trap of thinking your boss knows everything and every decision they make is undoubtedly the right one. This can make you wary of suggesting changes to the status quo, and taking your boss word as gospel. This is in fact really bad for business remember youve been hired for a reason, and your opinion is just as valid as everyone elses. Youre there to drive development and growth within the business, not keep things exactly the same. Obviously respect your boss authority and dont start acting like you own the place, but assert yourself and put your stamp on the work youre doing. If your boss completely refuses to accept anyones opinion other than their own, speak to your colleagues to see if theyre experiencing the same thing and arrange a chat with your boss to express your concerns. Anticipate their requests The only way to outwit your boss is to do what they want you to do before they even know they want you to do it. Obviously you shouldnt dedicate your whole life to just catering to your boss needs but see if theres some sort of pattern to the kind of things theyre asking you to do, try and anticipate these requests ahead of time so the next time they ask you can say its already done. Just make sure you dont look too smug. Of course, the end goal is that if you complete their requests beforehand, theyll eventually stop asking and let you get on with your job in peace. Become their friend Youve heard the saying, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. While this is very true, were not suggesting this so you can take some wild revenge on your boss at an opportune moment. If you get to know each other in an non-workplace setting, itll help you to work together more effectively when youre at work, and hopefully diffuse any tension that has arisen. Offer to go for coffee or lunch with them, and try to keep the topic of conversation away from work as much as possible. Find out about them as a person; what they like to do in their spare time, what their family is like, and what their hopes for the future are. Itll help you both to see each other as humans and not just colleagues, and enable you to cooperate better. Taking these actions should help avoid the worst case scenario, and enable you to continue thriving and succeeding in your role. Your company should have a support network in place for you to turn to in situations like this, so if youre struggling remember to always speak out. Know your own worth and know when youre being treated unfairly. Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures Connect with Debut on  Facebook,  Twitter,  and  LinkedIn  for more careers insights.