Creating a professional identity, can you afford it?

The initial inspiration for writing this post was seeing this piece from Sarah Kendizor (Professional Identity: A Luxury we can't afford) on the blog Vitae sponsored by the Chronicle for Higher Education. At issue is the disconnect between employers claiming there is a skills-gap (i.e. not enough people with the skills they need to fill the jobs that they say do exist) and trend for people to alter there resumes to hide work they may feel ashamed of or qualifications like education that they feel will hurt their chances.

My first thought is to remind everyone that your resume is a living document. I am sure you have heard that you must customize your resume for every job you apply for, but how often do we think about why we are doing this? We should be doing this to make absolutely sure that it reflects the background we have that makes us a good match for the job. Could this mean leaving off jobs or experience that is not relevant? Yes. Does it mean we should feel like we need to hide things from future employers? No. I think of it in the following terms: I have a document that contains everything. This document is never submitted when applying for a job. It is instead used as a tool to help me view my entire past and decide what is relevant when crafting the document (resume or CV) that I will submit when applying. For example, during my freshmen year in college my work-study job was in the print shop. The following summer I worked in a small manufacturing facility. These two positions haven't seen the light of day for a long time... but if I ever had to make a shift back to anything that needed manufacturing skills I would dust these off to demonstrate I have had experience in this area. But just the lines on a resume would typically not be enough, you would need to pair this with a well written cover letter.

Beyond thinking of your application documents as living, and telling the story of how you will be the best person for the job you are applying for, we as applicants need to remember the importance of the research. How will you know what the employer values? Research! How will you know the skills needed in the position? Research! How will you know the issues faced by the companies within the industry? Research! Just use the pieces I have written about career research to find the answers, then spend some time crafting the documents to demonstrate how you have the skills that employers claim we as applicants lack.

To further prepare you may also want to read some/all of the following articles that Ms. Kendizor mentioned in her piece that relate more directly to the job hunter:

Further Reading:

Holland, Kelley. "Why Johnny can't write, and why employers are mad." NBC News: Business. November 11, 2013.

Kendizor, Sarah. "Surviving the post-employment economy." Aljazeer. November 3, 2013.

Kuper, Simon. "The great middle-class identity crisis." Financial Times Magazine. November 8, 2013.

White, Martha C. "The Real Reason New College Grads Can't Get Hired" Time. November 10, 2013. 

"Why Should we Hire You?"

Liz Ryan tackles the question "Why Should we Hire You?" in this blog post. In her opinion this fairly standard job interview question shows a lack of imagination. She suggests some new questions that could be asked that show more respect to the candidate and allow for the demonstration of the candidates thinking skills.

The problem with her advice is that it is very likely to turn off about 90 - 95% of HR managers. Since this questions can come at any point in the interview, as the candidate you have to be prepared with several points that you can use to build the appropriate answer. While I have not had the time to read all of the comments on the original blog post (over 420 when I last checked...) it appears to me that many of the comments from actual HR folks are explaining/defending the use of this question. The comments from others seem to be split between: "great article", "this bothers me too..." and "won't this make you appear negative..."

Timing is Everything

So why might this be bad advice? Well the first reason is that depending on when in the interview the question comes, might indicate the types of information that the interviewer is looking for.

If the question comes near the beginning of the interview, it is your opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the position and company before the interview process. It also allows you to demonstrate your abilities to summarize your qualifications and link them to the skills/abilities they are looking for. Finally it allows you to begin asking about additional insights for what they are looking for in the ideal candidate.

If the question comes near the end however you have used the interview to demonstrate what you learned about the company/position before the interview. So now you are using your answer to demonstrate what you have learned during the interview, and how you view yourself in relation to the stated need for the position. Even though I as the candidate know nothing about the other candidates, I should be the end of the interview know a great deal about the position and company. I obviously know a great deal about myself. The interviewer, therefore, is looking for how well I can communicate my knowledge about myself and how my skills/abilities match the needs of the company. It is in essence my final pitch to sell myself to the company.

As a job candidate I can sympathize with the sentiments expressed by the people commenting on Ms. Ryan's blog post, but as a research expert I hope to instill the opportunity this question presents to the candidate. Remember to use these opportunities as a chance to make yourself stand out from the candidate crowd!

As always I welcome comments/feedback.

The Interview: How not to blow it...

Even though this piece is written in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and is intended for college instructors, the advice works for all. Robert Sternberg is the president of the University of Wyoming and writes "How Not to Blow the Interview." His 10 tips (below) are as I said universally useful for the job seeker once you reach the interview stage.

1. Ask in advance if they have any particular concerns about you.
   
2. Don't assure people that your great idea will work for them because it worked elsewhere.
   
3. Find out the hot-button issues on the campus in advance.
   
4. Don't try to solve the institution's problems in the interview.
   
5. Assume that anything you say to anyone in the interview could end up in the local news or somewhere on the Web.
   
6. Never lie about anything, no matter how small.
   
7. Try to understand how you might fit in to the institution's vision of its future.
   
8. Know the hiring institution's story of its past.
   
9. Don't assume you know who holds the real power.
   
10. Be enthusiastic.

Now tips 3, 4, 7, & 8 can all be traced back to doing your research. Replace institution with company and this translates to any field. So this is another great example from someone who does hiring about how knowing about the company/institution (i.e. doing your research) can improve your chances of interview success. I have learned this lesson the hard way once, and hope to never be in that situation again.

cover letter advice

Katherine Goldstein, the innovations editor at Slate,  wrote this article for the site about Cover Letter advice. The subtitle for the article claims that it has 12 tips your career counselor hasn't told you, and I know that these are intended to catch our attention... but really?

• Focus on the cover letter.
• Keep it short.
• Avoid awkward phrasing and attempts to be overly formal.
• You are your best advocate.
• Show me that you read my site.
• Explain how selecting you will benefit me.
• I’m not interested in anything you did before college.
• I’m not interested in your life journeys.
• When I read “senior thesis” my eyes glaze over.
• I don’t really care what classes you’ve taken, either.
• Your college and GPA aren’t as important as you think.
• Follow the application instructions to a T.

The article itself is useful, since as she says she has read many cover letters in her time and hired many entry-level positions. But I can say without a doubt I have heard all of these before (and written about many of them!) Several of these work together to reinforce the main point I make, which is you MUST conduct the research to learn all you can about the position, company and industry you are applying for.

If you haven't done this type of research before I encourage you to read my various posts of research tips. If after that you need more one on one assistance I will once again recommend your local public library. While I certainly don't know my readers individually and where you all live, I know the profession. You should be able to find professionals who can help teach/guide you in research.

Good luck to all!             

The importance of asking job interview questions as the candidate.

As regular readers of this blog will already know, I am very much a proponent of proper preparation for job search or interview. Doing that research about the position, company, and industry are great ways to make you stand out and get interviews and hopefully job offers. So when I saw the following piece by Joel Peterson via LinkedIn I was prepared to agree with and sing the praises of the article:

"The One Job Interview Question to Get Right"  and as I began reading I initially thought I was going to be right... but then it turned south quickly.

First, I agree with the general premise that the most important question to be prepared for in the interview is when the interviewer will ask you as the candidate if you have any questions for them. Mr. Peterson's reasons for this questions importance are also spot on, it can be used to demonstrate to the interviewer what you know about the position, them as a company, and the industry they are in. I also agree with the reasons behind not asking the first three questions he details. As he mentions these will leave the interviewer with the impression that you as a candidate are looking to the position to solely benefit you, and not as a mutually beneficial relationship between you ans the company.

But when he gives his suggestions for four questions that would be better, I have to strongly disagree with three of the four. Before I get too far into why I object I feel that I need to give just a bit of background to remind regular readers and inform any new readers of where I am coming from. I am a librarian, more specifically a reference and instruction librarian. For the last ten years I have spent almost every day of my professional life teaching people not only how to research, but how to evaluate the information they find from their research. For about four of those years I was in an large academic library setting where I got the opportunity to work with the various career service offices at the university. In this time I learned first hand from the company recruiters exactly the point Mr. Peterson is making:

To stand out from the crowd of applicants, one must demonstrate with every interaction your knowledge of the position, company and the industry they operate in.

So now back to Mr. Peterson's suggested questions:

1. “How can new employees become familiar with, and begin to contribute to, the culture you’ve developed here?

To me this says you did not do that research. Instead you should have used the interview to demonstrate you know something about the culture and give examples of how you would contribute if hired. If you have done that, then you could ask a followup to clarify if you have the right understanding about their culture, or if the examples you gave would mesh with current initiatives. 

2. “What’s the most important way that your company differentiates itself from competitors?” (Focus the question on the particular industry you’re in, showing that you’re knowledgeable about the company and its sector.)

By asking this question, I again feel that you are demonstrating you didn't do enough research. You should have been able to learn some about them and their competitors and what the differences are... instead you might mention some of the specific things you have learned about them or the competition in the interview and make a connection with your background. (ex. "I read in the XXXX that your competitor is about to introduce YYYY and I feel that my experience at company ZZZZ would allow me to contribute immediately in your efforts to ....")

3. “What are a few of the most important challenges that the industry is facing, and how is your company going to approach them?

Again you should already know the challenges, and if the opportunity was available addressed how you can make a contribution during the interview.

4. “What might I do to add the greatest value to the business?” -- followed by, “What kinds of things can I do to prepare myself for the job?”

This combination is very good, but I think it needs to be paired with the suggestions I have made above. After sprinkling suggestions of ways you can contribute built upon the things you have learned about them and/or the industry during your research, these two questions can be a great way to wrap up the interview and hopefully receive some initial feedback on how they viewed you and the examples/suggestions you brought to the table.

The research is vitally important, but just as important is how you use what you learned and demonstrate it in the cover letter, interview, and all communications with the company.

I value comments and feedback as always.

More on the Freelance Economy.

A few weeks ago I wrote a piece about the Freelance Economy. In that piece I included a link to an episode of the Diana Rehm show. On that show, they mentioned several resources, one of them was ELance. This is an online portal for those who freelance, and for those who are looking to hire freelance workers.

For those still not sure if freelancing is right for them the following article "Will your next job be a freelance one?" from Forbes Magazine written by Elaine Pofeldt provides some additional insight. Still need more? Possibly my additional pieces on the freelance economy might help.

Finding your voice

Vicki Salemi has written this very good piece in US News & World Reports' On Careers blog called: "5 Speech Tips to 'Find your Voice' for the Big Interview". In this piece advice from noted career expert Caroline Dowd-Higgins discussed several key tips for when speaking in a job interview:

• Use ample volume, don't speak too quickly, and think before you speak.
• Watch for nervous ticks ('um', 'ah', 'like', 'you-know') that manifest as filler words.
• Allow the words to "land and be heard without the filler."

The article then outlines the following five tips to let your voice shine:

1. Eliminate the filler words.
2. Practice with technology.
3. Listen to your interviewer.
4. Carry authority.
5. Remember to breathe.

Now I can only hope that most of these are things that we have all heard before, but I think that this nice reminder can help any of us who are still looking. As the interviewee it may feel like the pauses are long and unbearable... but if we had someone time them for us in practice, then it will turn out that these pauses (when practiced) are very short and help the interview. Couple that with tip three 'listening to your interviewer' can allow you to truly hear the questions and answer what they are asking of you. This, combined with the research you have done on the company/position will make you standout from the crowd of applicants.

I would love to hear about examples of using the pause to effect.

Job hunting secrets/Interview tips

So I have been reading a lot lately about things that either are or could be come trend in hiring/employment. Several of my recent posts have been about these trends, especially the raise of the freelance economy. In some industries/sectors this is nothing new. For example academia has called this class of employee adjuncts and the practice has been around for decades.

Because of this focus I haven't had as much time to pass on general job hunting and interviewing advice columns. These two did register on my radar and I set them aside to pass along. The first is by Lou Adler, who wrote The Ten Best Job-hunting Secrets of all time. The second is by Jeff Haden, who wrote What Interviewers Wish They Could Tell Every Job Candidate.  Neither of these seemed groundbreaking to me, but admittedly I read a lot of these columns/articles, so they may be new to you.

In Mr. Adler's piece he provides 10 tips, mostly about networking and answering interviewer questions. They are all sound, but as I said nothing that seems radically different. Also as is typically the case there is very little description or explanation of how to apply the tips. One thing I will give him credit for is linking job seekers to a column he wrote on advice for the interviewer to use in judging our answers, so obviously it might be helpful to review that advice as well.

In Mr. Harden's piece he talks about nine traits/attributes that the interviewer wants to see/pick up on in the interview. Used along side the two articles by Mr. Adler these could help develop a picture of what you might expect the interviewer to think/feel about you as a candidate.

So as a example the #3 tip from Mr. Harden's column was that interviewers what candidates to stand out. If you paired that with the #'s 7 & 8 tips from Mr. Adler's piece (and some Google searching for what exactly SAFW is and how to do it...)you should be able to construct some strong answers to questions you expect the interviewer might ask.

How do you determine what questions they might ask (you might be saying to your self...) well you have a few choices:

• First examine your resume and cover letter and be prepared to talk about any and all statements, experiences, accomplishments you have provided  to them.
• Try a sight like Glassdoor.com (I wrote this review) and look up sample interview questions.

Another interviewing technique similar to the SAFW that Mr. Adler describes is STAR. It is another way to help you organize your thoughts and prepare a strong answer.

Hopefully these and other things I have written about over the past year and a half are helping people out. As always I would love to hear from readers and get a conversation going.

Job search inspiration

TED talks are great, and the folks over at Mashable have picked their 5 favorites for job search inspiration. I have not yet watched them all, but the first one seemed to tie into my piece last week about The Freelance Economy. If a system like the one Mr. Rowan describes could be unleashed it would go a long way making such an economy more usable/comfortable for the worker. Take a look and let me know what you think.

The Freelance Economy

Well this concept is certainly nothing new... I wrote about an article I read almost a year ago that bemoaned this practice of moving away from full time employment towards contract work. That original article The Age of the Freelancer written by Gary Stern for Fortune Magazine mainly focused on the individual worker. This week The Diane Rehm show on NPR focused on the effect on the entire economy in a program they called The Freelance Economy. It is worth a listen if you missed it, especially if like me you are stuck working several part time jobs to get by.

The thing I was heartened to hear (because the trend data showing that this is the way the economy is headed can be a bit depressing...) was the various groups that are forming around the country to help support people who are living this new lifestyle (either by choice or due to circumstances out of their control.) The also made an interesting connection to the Affordable Care Act and how it will help improve the lifestyle of workers in this category.

I will be trying to keep track of this trend and continue to blog about it as it develops. As always I would love to hear from anyone with direct experience, especially if you have found unique or different ways to deal with some of the challenges we are facing (health care, saving for retirement, dealing with debt especially student loan debt, etc.)

The best of times, the worst of times.

Finding a job in your chosen career can be difficult at the best of times. We are certainly not in the best of times! I have now been looking for full time work for almost four years (it will be four years next month.) Right now according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics I am technically in the involuntary part time workers category, and it is no fun. Sometimes I feel like I am in the marginally attached category (those who want to work full time, but have stopped looking because they feel like they can't/won't be able to find a job.)

Either way I am suffering, and so are millions of Americans. For the raw data some of you may be interested in the actual BLS report for July. It is rather dry to read, but here is what I take away... little has changed in the past year. Thats a bad thing! In the last year the stock market has gone up over 20%,  home prices have risen a little over 12%, home sales are up, and every month it seems that the private sector hiring is higher than the overall number. For example in July ADP reported that private sector hiring created 200,000 jobs, yet the overall number just released by the BLS was a gain of 162,000 jobs. So the quick math would indicated that the public sector lost 38,000 jobs in July. Initial analysis by CNN/Money seems to agree with me that this is not good. Bloomberg News also notes that hours worked and earnings were down slightly for the month. All of this adds up to bad news.

I realize that this may be an oversimplified example... but if the Federal Reserve still contends that the government should be spending more on infrastructure (roads, bridges, schools, etc.) then instead of spending $85 billion per month to buy bonds, why can't they spend on infrastructure? Even $1 billion per month would make a difference.

Certainly some of the job loses in the public sector since the rescission began in 2008 were jobs that may have not been necessary... but we can't sustain this. The private sector can't hire all 12 million unemployed Americans. It certainly can't absorb all the unemployed/underemployed/marginally attached workers (I think that number is closer to 25 million!)

Yesterday I wrote about a disturbing trend to shift work to part time or temporary work. If we relay on the private sector to rehire all the people who want to work, this trend will get worse and so will the country as a whole. So while these are by no means the best of times, things will get a whole lot worse in my opinion if this trend continues.

To best position yourself remember to prepare your self for any opportunity with sound research about the company and industry you are interviewing with. Be prepared to make connections between your skills, abilities, and background to their position and situation. As always good luck, and fi you have any thoughts I would love to hear them.

Survey says...

It has been a while since I have found time to write, boy the summer has gone by fast. With many economic signs appearing to conflict, especially when it comes to employment, I thought I'd write about a phenomenon that hits a bit close to home. The trend (if it is that) of jobs shifting away from full time and towards part time (or even temporary.)

Over on CNN/Money Tami Luhby has an article on some of the latest employment data:
"Want a job? Good luck finding full-time work." Different from the monthly jobs numbers this article discusses the rise in part-time and temporary jobs. While each is not at all times highs set back in 2010 the increase is a bit unsettling.

If you take the glass half full approach you might see this as amazing, considering as Ms. Luhby describes all the things working against hiring (payroll tax hikes, sequester, the Affordable Health Care Act, and general weak economic growth.) It is amazing that any hiring has been going on... But the half empty view would suggest that companies are intentionally shifting to less and less full time employment to avoid not only health care, but benefits in general.

Now I don't think I would fall squarely in either camp... but as someone who currently only has a part time job I can certainly see the effects. Many of the employers who I am looking to find work with are slowing hiring or moving towards part timers.

Higher education has traditionally used somewhere between 30% - 40% part time workers for the actually teaching (when you combined adjuncts, lecturers, and graduate assistants.) So for me personally the change may not be as drastic, but for many other fields like engineering and information technology the switch may be alarming.

My bachelor's degree is in computer science, and while I never saw my self as a programer if I had chosen that field and been working for the past decade and a half I can't imagine I would be looking fondly on the prospect of now having to work project by project and get far less than what I was worth. I guess I don't see the incentive for the programmer or engineer to work to the best of their ability when they know they will be out of work when the project is done. I suppose if there were large incentives to complete the project within the timeframe maybe... but otherwise why should I effectively shorten my usefulness.

Now I suppose that if I do very good work I might get hired back for more contract work... but again with no health and retirement benefits the situation would seem untenable.

Answering the BIG question...

We all know it's coming, yet we may not be fully prepared for it. The moment in the interview when the human resources representative/committee/interviewer asks "Why do you want this job?". Hopefully you have prepared and have a solid answer, if not you may want to read this from the Undercover Recruiter and how to answer the question.

In the article there a four steps to help you prepare your answer, but it seems to me the two keys are use the question as your chance to make your sales pitch (i.e. highlight why you are the perfect candidate) and second you want to know what they want in a candidate.

What this article fails to tell you is that in order to know what they want in a candidate you will undoubtedly need to do some research about the company, position, and possible the industry in which you hope to work. I have written pieces in the past about this type of research, the most useful may be this on Company research - business news.

Some additional things to remember are the power of LinkedIn and other social networks. Before the interview you may want to search by job title to see the career path of others in the career you are pursuing. You also will want to use Glassdoor.com or Career One Stop to look up salary data and interview question styles.

Use all the tools that are available to you, go into the interview prepared, relaxed and confident and hopefully everything will work out.

The value of personal websites.

Just in case you hadn't heard... a personal web site is valuable to the job seeker.

Author Jacquelyn Smith writes this article in Forbes, Why every job seeker should have a personal website and what it should include. At the beginning she shares some national statistics about the job market: the average job opening receives 118 applicants, only about 20% (or 36 get interviews.) Also she quotes a Workfolio study that reports that "56% of hiring managers are more  impressed by a personal website than any other branding tool - however, only 7% of job seekers actually have a personal website."

These statistics seem to match my personal experiences over the past few years. They also seem to match a gut feeling I have had in the past about the reasons to have a personal website, and I have one... but is it doing all it could for me? I would love to see examples of sites that other job seekers are using. By sharing we should all be able to get stronger as candidates.

"badges, we don't need no stinking badges"

Well maybe we do? This article on the future of credentials by Monica Guzman from the Seattle Times asks the important question about the future of the resume. It basically boils down to this: "If résumés are a bunch of claims, badges are a bunch of evidence."

So what do badges have do do with this, you may be asking yourself. Well if you are familiar with any kind of gamification you may already know the answer, but if you don't know what that is I will try to cover them both in brief.

Gamification is a process where elements of games are applied to non game situations to influence behavior. This is typically done by businesses but it is also making its way into education and other areas... many times the elements that are being brought in are levels, experience and rewards. Many of these have centered around the idea of earning a badge to demonstrate an accomplishment (hence the evidence in Ms. Guzman's quote.) So here are a few basic examples:

Using the Social Media app for smart phones FourSquare people can 'check in ' at locations and earn badges for things like the number of times they visit locations, the number of locations visited, etc. They can also become 'mayor' of a location when they reach the top of the list of check-ins. The business could then use this information to issue deals, coupons, or other rewards to help encourage people to stop by.

This is a fairly simple example, and there are many others on the gamification site linked above. I can also discuss this with anyone individually who is interested and/or recommend further reading.

Where it becomes interesting is (as the article from the Seattle Times hints at) when we expand these badges into other social media tools (perhaps LinkedIn for example.) Here is a frame work for how I could see this unfolding:

LinkedIn working with others creates a smooth and simple interface to allow users to display badges, certificates and other items demonstrating achievement (the evidence or virtual currency.) Then MOOCs and other systems where people can go to learn skills award some sort of badge, certificate, etc. and this gets loaded into LinkedIn or some other profile building site. Now along with the standard names and dates of schools and employers (the old resume), I have a skills section (LinkedIn already has this) with the endorsements from my network (LinkedIn has this as well) and a layer with badges, certificates, and other forms of evidence from a whole host of other potential sources.

The rating/point system would need to be fully developed, but  here is my initial thoughts of a hypothetical example:

• Being a member of network (think LinkedIn Groups)                    1 point each
• Being active in that group (writing posts, asking questions, etc.)     1 point each
• Having activity from the group voted up                                        0.5 points each
• Having appropriate connections (network)                                    0.25 points each
• Blogging about your professed expertise                                       0.1 points per post
• Followers of said blog                                                                  0.25 points each
• Comments on said blog                                                                0.5 points each
• Certificates, badges, awards                                                         1 point each
• Recommendations for work                                                          2 points each
• Endorsements of skills                                                                  0.5 points each
• Answering questions (Yahoo Answers, etc.)                                  0.1 point each
• Answer to question being voted up                                               0.25 points each
• Writing reviews (Amazon, Yelp, etc.)                                            0.1 point each
• Reviews being voted up                                                                0.25 points each
• Publications                                                                                  3 points each
• Presentations at conferences                                                         3 points each
• Invited to speak at a conference                                                    5 points each

Obviously this list would continue to grow as more systems were integrated, and the point system would have to be constantly adjusted to ensure its effectiveness. Hopefully It is clear that the value would lie in the usefulness that others place on the content that I as a job candidate create, not just me trying to inflate my standing by producing anything. I could also see layers being added if I wanted to integrate my purchases, for example if an online retailer could verify I bought a book or other tool needed for some task it would add a small bit of confidence that I am prepared to tackle the task.

Another benefit of such a system is that it would start to show specialization. By that I mean a sub field or area that you may not have received formal education in or that your job titles don't match... but that through experience you have learned. As an example my advanced degree is in Library Science, and I have worked in both public and academic libraries as a reference librarian. However through my experiences I have picked up a lot of knowledge about business, entrepreneurship and career development (which is why I write this blog!) If I wanted to get a job at a college in a career center I would probably have a hard time, since none of my education or employment background would lead the hiring manager to think I had the knowledge... but with such a system in place, it might be much more clear that I have the knowledge to complete the job duties. For example of my 186 LinkedIn connections 33 are career center people in higher ed and 24 are entrepreneurs or business school faculty that teach entrepreneurship. Then if you looked at my publications and presentations (something that any hiring manager outside of hiring for teaching faculty is unlikely to look at...) you might see most are related to creating resources for students to improve the job search. Then factor in this blog and you would begin to see that I am quite capable to take on a position in a career center for an institution of higher learning (not that I am currently pursuing this... but if I wanted to it might be hard for me with a standard resume/cover letter type hiring system in place today with most employers.)

Now I am sure I am not thinking of every possible result of creating and using such a system. I also know it would take some time for all the bugs to be shaken out and for everyone to catch up, but the bottom line is that it would be just a new piece of the pie that might help to bring together all of the things that hiring managers are already doing. We know they are checking our online presence and identity. We know that they are contacting not only the references we list for them, but others that may know us for insights.

Thoughts? Am I missing something?

Beating Unemployment.

J.T. O'Donnell is a career expert, and this recent piece (3 Tips to Beat an Unemployment Stigma) got me thinking. She starts out by mentioning a new study (written up in the Washington Post piece here) that says long term unemployment can be a source of discrimination during a job search. I first want to echo her sarcasm over the shocking nature of these results. It is certainly something I have written about, providing links to advice and offering my own thoughts.

I like the 3 tips that Ms. O'Donnell shares. They are more than just general advice/common sense things that we all already knew. Hopefully anyone reading this will take heart in that (to me at least) they are simple and actionable steps that I can apply today.

Her second tip can involve some heavy lifting with the research muscle.  Don't forget to refer back to my posts of research tips to find useful advice on how to approach learning about a company beyond just reading their web page.

When approaching this company research, while it is important to learn as much as possible from the information that the company produces, it is vital to gather background about the company from 3rd party news outlets and to learn about the industry that your target company is a part of and something about it's major competitors as well.

For anyone who has read this blog long enough will remember that I work in academic libraries. At my FPOW I had the pleasure of working closely with several campus offices that helped students find work. They mentioned time and again that the feedback they got from recruiters is that job candidates don't know enough about their company. Since leaving that university and starting this blog I have seen many advice articles that also mention this. Doing the research about the company is critical. So here is a senerio:

Candidate 1 has not done much research, and therefore the interview is mainly about them and their background.

You (as candidate 2) have done some of this research and you can mention things you have learned (big bonus), but if you can mention these things and make a connection to your background and how it will help you help them... (BIG BIG bonus)

Hopefully it is clear the power of this kind of research. Much of it can be done with smart web searching, but you can find better more reliable sources of information if you use a library. Try this post for a list of high quality resources provided by most state to all of their residents to perform this type of research.

I would love to hear from anyone who has used this type of approach to improve their interviewing.

The Only Three True Interview Questions

From Forbes Magazine contributor George Bradt writes this piece about Acing the only three true interview questions. His questions are:

• Can you do the job?
• Will you love the job?
• Can we tolerate working with you?

and he has a more detailed piece about why these are the only three questions.  First I encourage everyone to read both of his pieces, but his advice for acing these interview questions he gives three simple steps:

1. Think before opening your mouth.
2. Answer the question asked.
3. Bridge to answer the true underlying question.

I have unfortunately not been  meticulously documenting all interview questions I have gotten in the past two and a half years of my job search. I can however give some examples of how I think I have done this well and how I have not done so well.

First the not so well...

I was interviewing for a job as an academic librarian where the primary job function was managing the information commons (which was being built in the new building.) My understanding of one of the primary job functions was that this position would be responsible for programming, that is organizing and putting on events to bring students, faculty, and the public to the library. I can freely admit that this was not my biggest strength, but I have experience putting on these types of events. So at several points in the interview (and for those of you who are unfamiliar with academic interviews, they average a day and a half!) when I was asked about programming background and/or ideas I described my experiences. Now my personal experiences primarily center around using games (board, computer, console, and trivia) and while I am sure I mentioned other ideas I can with hindsight see that if most of my ideas appeared to be centered on games and gaming this might not jive with the library and staff.

By using Mr. Bradt's three steps here is something closer to how I might have answered the question:

think about my gaming experience
Begin the answer with a brief example of one of these game events, but quickly pivot to how I have planned events, and programs around many themes depending on circumstances.

Where I think I did well...

In this case I was interviewing for an academic librarian where the primary job function was business reference. The question was about my experience developing a collection for students and faculty in this area. I answered by describing which business areas I had supported in a previous position, talked about how I worked with the faculty in these areas to learn what was important to them and their students, and then described a project at that previous job where we analyzed the collection and removed a large amount of material that was dated, and no longer as important for students and researchers.

Now I did not get that job either, but I did have a very positive conversation with the administrator in charge of the search about how well I did, and my strengths as a candidate (which is unfortunately rare) but how the candidate they chose had twenty years experience and an advanced degree in business.

I for one am going to be practicing the techniques that Mr. Bradt describes. Have you had any experiences positive or negative with job interviews and these types of questions? How do you answer them?

Not finding a job... 4 possible reasons

Over on AOL Jobs is an article giving four reasons why you are still unemployed. My first thoughts upon reading this was that these reasons were overly general and unhelpful. I hope that anyone who has been or still is in the long term unemployed (anything over six months) they have read many articles like this one. There list (if you don't have time to read the short piece) is as follows:

• do a little soul searching
• identify what your target employer wants
• ramp up your networking
• demonstrate your expertise

Are there any of these you aren't doing? If you answered yes, then maybe you want to start with the soul searching. But I feel that it would be fairly safe to assume that most of you have done these and many things like them. While I don't claim to be an expert on numbers 1, 3, &4 I hope I am qualified to speak on number 2. If you haven't read my past posts on researching companies you may want to start there (research tips, you may want to focus on the oldest three posts which are specifically on company research.)

But how do you do this research if you don't already have a list of target companies in mind. One of the best ways I know of would be to use RefUSA or some similar database that lets you filter by type of company, geography, and other characteristics. These are typically subscription tools, so you first step will be to visit your local public library (or it's web site) to find out if they provide access to such a tool (you may be surprised!) Here is a graphic showing just some databases useful for this research and what you may find:

From the Purdue University Career Wiki

There are many others, and if your library doesn't have access to these, start a conversation... explain what you are trying to learn and you may find that the librarian can be very helpful, they may have others that can help you in the same area.

If they do have access, then hopefully a reference librarian there can help demonstrate how to search effectively... but things to look for are the following:

• setting your geographic preferences (typically by zip code)
• setting your industry (or type of company you are looking for...) this can either be done with government codes or with common yellow page style headings

these are more or less essential, but some additional options you might want to use:

• company size (either number of employees or by sales volume)

once you have a reasonable list, you can begin with web searches... but you may want to consider reading about the companies in the business press, here are my thoughts about those types of searches.

Hopefully this advice is just a bit more practical  than the AOLJobs article, and I wish all job seekers out there good luck as the global economy slowly begins to turn around.

-George

What can be learned during a long job search.

Long job searches can be tough on the job seeker, I am sure if you are in that situation you don't need me to tell you that. Also each industry brings its own set of unique circumstances, even before we begin to analyze each persons unique situation. All that being said, I think that the advice of this librarian can be helpful for most job seekers in a long search (think 12 months or longer.)

If your job search has been too long (which is a totally personal decision) you may need to start thinking about a career change. This recent article on creating resumes for a career change may be helpful.  Also you may want to investigate my posts on employment trends, especially the recent post about thinking like a free agent.

• Tap your network and learn about different career paths you might explore.
• Once you have some ideas research these paths (try this post for a good starting point.)
• Generate questions you have about these options.
• Try to arrange informational interviews with people in your network (or from outside) to learn the answers to these questions.
• Think about volunteering to gain some experience in the new career path.
• Look to expand your network towards this new path.
• Look at LinkedIn groups that you might join to hear the perspective of experts in the area.
• Follow people on Twitter, Google+ or other social networks that allow to learn from/observe these experts.
• Once you feel comfortable join in on these conversations. This becomes part of your social resume.
• Remember to critically examine your skills and experience to identify areas that will apply to jobs in your new/desired field.
•  When performing this examination try a separate sheet (file) for each job (and possibly each major area of each job...) and begin to list in detail everything involved: skills, accomplishments, challenges.
• These lists will help you identify areas to highlight in a resume/cover letter for a job for which you have less experience, but feel that you have the right skills to succeed.

Above all keep the chin up and good luck.

Think like a free agent?

This blog post comes from the Richland Library in South Carolina and discusses the 'new search strategy' of thinking like a free agent. The author Lori Cook is a job readiness trainer, and her many posts show her knowledge and describe ways of helping the general public with the complicated nature of the job search. I like this analogy, and while the general advice is very much in line with things I have read in the past the analogy is new and very effective.

In sports of any kind, players are under contract. Depending on the sport and the union rules they can often earn the right to become a free agent, meaning that they can receive offers and choose to work for a new team. This almost always comes with a large pay increase and much press coverage.

In Ms. Cook's piece she outlines how using some of the philosophy of athletes and working for yourself can be beneficial in searching for or being offered employment. I like the tone of the article, and believe that many job seekers can benefit from this attitude shift to the job search.

Hiring the unemployed

This piece over on Recuriter.com covers the myth of hiring the unemployed. As Mr. Ladimeji explains, in times gone by it was assumed that if someone was unemployed they were undesirable as a candidate, but given the economy of the past few years this is becoming less true. This is welcome news for the nearly 2.5 million Americans who find themselves without employment as a results of the economic crisis of 2008.

This double-edged sword can still be tricky for many... in my personal experience I hope that after nearly two years out of work, my part-time job in my field is resharpening my skills and that it will help in all future employment searches. I know it is helping my professional network in my new home area. On the flip side however the time it takes out of my week makes it hard to juggle the job searching and application process for full time work.

This is a very personal decision and I wish everyone who is in the position to make it the best of luck. Just know that if you choose to stay unemployed in order to focus your full time on finding the work that best suits you, it should not hurt your chances as much as that decision may have five years ago.

The Social Resume: do you need one?

This post over at Social Media Today shows an infographic with statistics about the use of social media in hiring. They title the graphic the Social Resume, and it reinforces the need for a strong but measured approach to using social media. The results mirror the results from a survey done by the SHRM in 2011, which I wrote about here.

The biggest take away is that hiring managers/employers are using these tools more than job-seekers. For example 93% of employers reported using LinkedIn while just 38% of job-seekers use it. There appears to be an opportunity for the skilled job-seeker to use the social media tools to put out a positive public profile of themselves as a candidate no matter what the field or job you are seeking.

Becoming an Entrepreneur in 12 weeks?

Paul Brown is a contributor at Forbes magazine. In this article he details how some of his ideas* have been expanded upon by Tom McDonough (www.getappia.com), to form the basis of an idea (and eventual a course) about becoming an entrepreneur in 12 weeks.

This idea falls in nicely with other pieces I have discussed in the employment trends and start-ups posts. Essentially, all of us will need to develop some familiarity with the traits of good entrepreneurs. As the nature of work shifts to away from traditional 40-hour per week full time jobs to contract work/consulting the ability to sell your skills/services and/or create new ideas/products will become critical.

In this article Mr. Brown discusses how he agrees with Mr. McDonough, and encourages everyone to use the 12 week framework to try out being an entrepreneur and see if they a) like it and b) can make money with an idea/product/or service they have.

If you have read this blog with regularity these ideas shouldn't seem outrageous. Whether you are looking for a more traditional full time job or looking to improve your skills as an entrepreneur you need to be well informed. Learn to improve your skills at finding high quality information about those you will be working with (companies, people, industries...) visit your local library and checkout their business resources (or check if your state offers virtual resources for its residents.) Check with a state office for small business resources.

If you have questions you think others could benefit from, I would look forward to some conversation via the comments.


*Paul B. Brown is the co-author (along with Leonard A. Schlesinger and Charles F. Kiefer) of Just Start: Take Action; Embrace Uncertainty and Create the Future recently published by Harvard Business Review Press.

Ten ways to make your XXXX job application better than everyone else's

This post was written by Matt Thompson (a journalist) with ten tips for other journalists to improve their job applications. These tips however are applicable to ANY profession. I strongly encourage you to read the full piece, but here are his tips:

1. Read between the lines of my job description.
2. Get your vanity search in order.
3. Speaking of which, please have a personal site.
4. Your cover letter should tell me two stories, and both should be fascinating.
5. There’s more than one way to skin a resume.
6. Even if I’m not following you on social media, assume I am.
7. Don’t hesitate to get one of our mutual colleagues to recommend you to me.
8. A little follow-up at any point in this process doesn’t hurt. A lot might.
9. The very best interviews feel like great conversations.
10. Every hiring manager is different.

His narrative does a great job explaining how these can be applied to job searches/applications. The number one suggestion to me seems to be arguing for doing your homework/research about the position and company (hint: if you haven't read this blog for long this is my mantra.)

I like the idea of the cover letter telling two stories. I wish there had been room in his piece to give examples, or at least more advice... which leads me to my charge for all of you. If you have done this please share tips, advice, examples in the comments. If you have not, but have thoughts share those as well.


 

Skills shortage an employer problem?

Let's start the week with a thought experiment.

This piece by Neil Sandell in the Toronto Star discusses how the claim of many CEO's and corporate executives that there is a skills gap is actually a self-inflicted wound. While the articles data and studies are about Canada, the insights are universal. The current trend in corporate hiring is to higher experienced candidates and to no longer train/develop current employees.

We have all probably seen job ads asking for what seems like an impossible combination of education and experience. There are many career/job hunting blog posts across the internet detailing this trend (see some of my other posts on employment trends) of employers fishing for the best possible candidate at the lowest cost. In the short term companies may be acting in their own self-interest... but what will be the long term consequences of these practices?

My personal opinion is that this will have a long term negative impact on the skills of the workforce. Only time will tell if this will be overcome by changing hiring practices, technology or some other change in the way businesses work in the future.

Your thoughts are welcome.

Embrace Insecurity?

This article by Allison Vaillancourt featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education discusses how being a bit insecure might make you a better employee. Before you discount the advice as only applying for academics, the article is discussing a study conducted by the Harvard Business Review Blog. The original HBR Blog piece offers three tips:

• Lower self-confidence makes you pay attention to negative feedback and be self-critical
• Lower self-confidence can motivate you to work harder and prepare more
• Lower self-confidence reduces the chances of coming across as arrogant or being deluded.

My thought is that these are all a fine line, but when you are in the good place between having a level of self-confidence that is too high and too low can produce great employees. I would encourage everyone to read both articles, and then reflect on where you may fall of the sliding scale.

If you are too high on your skills you may act without considering all the ramifications... but if you are too low on your skills you might become paralyzed with self-doubt. As with many things in life finding the right balance along this scale can lead to a better more well rounded employee/job candidate.

For the job hunter/candidate I see this applying most to the interview and/or networking opportunities.

'Perfect' Job Interview?

In this piece featured on LinkedIn in late November Jeff Haden of Inc.com discusses the perfect job interview. He first discusses that landing an interview is a success that we shouldn't discount, with potentially hundreds if not thousands of applicants for each open position. He then provides eight steps help you shine in the interview.

1. Be likeable.
2. Never start the interview by stating you want the job.
3. Ask questions about what matters to you.
4. Set a hook.
5. Know what you can offer immediately.
6. Don't create negative sound bites.
7. Ask for the job based on the facts.
8. Reinforce your connection with your follow-up.

Tips 3 and 7 remind us the importance of studying/researching the company/position before the interview. Not only will this increase you chances of landing the interview, but it should increase your odds of landing the job.

-Good luck!