Will my job title be a deal breaker in finding new work? I work in a higher educational setting. I am not a faculty member so I am lumped in to the only other category: administrative staff. But I’m not an administrator, I am a trained business communicator working at the level of senior manager. While there are things I like about my role and my employer, and I really, really like our leadership, I am a union member by requirement, and the union has tied the hands of our organization so that it is impossible for me ever to be given a job title different from what I currently hold: “co-ordinator.” The problem is that in the communications arena, a co-ordinator is an entry-level job.
How can I possibly find another job commensurate with my ability and experience when my résumé says I am a co-ordinator? If I were the one looking through a pile of résumés for a senior manager position and saw the title of my job – I’d dump me! I will have to break up with my employer sooner or later – but how do I manage the blemish of my title? Position yourself. A Tool for Mapping Your Goals and Resolving Career Indecision - Bill Barnett. By Bill Barnett | 12:00 PM August 23, 2012 When deciding whether to take a job offer, you’re hoping to maximize attainment of your objectives. If an opportunity scores highly against all objectives, you’ll quickly know what to do.
But your choice may not be so easy. You may have two good options. Michael (name has been changed) faced this situation. Everything came together one day in four minutes. Michael didn’t let the numbers tell him what to do, but the way he filled in the matrix showed that consulting was best for him. This matrix isn’t new. A decision to take a job offer can be a close call. First, set objectives. Another way to stimulate ideas is to imagine objectives by category. Two other categories concern what you get from work: money and prestige. Then, evaluate alternatives against your objectives.
Think both about what you believe is likely in the first year or two and where an alternative might lead you over time. Subjectively quantify performance. Top employers reveal the skills they value most. The job market has improved, but is still very tight and highly competitive. Because of this, it is imperative that you do all you can to set yourself above and apart from the competition, by honing and highlighting your skills that are in high demand by employers. To help you on this path, we covered the six skills and qualities most desired by employers. In their Job Outlook 2012 report, the U.S. National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) included the results of a 2011 survey in which it asked employers which of the skills and qualities they value most in candidates.
Ability to work in a team structure More often than not, your job will require you to work with others in order to get tasks and projects completed. Ability to verbally communicate In order to get work done, you may need to communicate with multiple departments in the organization. Ability to make decisions and solve problems Ability to obtain and process information Ability to plan, organize and prioritize work. How to build up your personal brand. Sure, everyone knows what a brand is. Coke, Pepsi, McDonald’s. But that buzzword is getting thrown around a whole lot in career and job search conversations these days, too. And you might be thinking to yourself, “Why do I really have to care about this?”
Here’s why: Whether you’re on the job hunt, a student, or gainfully employed, you must think, act, and plan like a business leader. With the surge of social media, you have not only the ability, but you now have the need to manage your own reputation, both online and in real life. Employers will Google you before they even invite you to an interview. And here’s where you come in: You want to be in control of all of those impressions. Your personal brand is all about who you are and what you want to be known for. Your first task is to develop your “brand mantra.” It’s not a mission statement – rather, it’s a quick, simple, and memorable statement describing who you are and what you have to offer. Determine your emotional appeal. Build Your Personal Value Proposition - Bill Barnett.
By Bill Barnett | 11:06 AM November 17, 2011 Executives set value propositions for their products — the target market segments, the benefits they provide, and their prices. It’s why a target customer should buy the product. But value propositions go beyond just products. Your personal value proposition (PVP) is at the heart of your career strategy. The question is this: How do you develop a powerful PVP? Take a look at Steve (name has been changed). It’s hard to know what you’re really good at. Steve targets companies from $150 million sales up to $1 billion. Steve also emphasizes his view of the right atmosphere: “I’m not at all into sleazy places, nor into industries like tobacco, alcohol, or casinos. Steve’s leaving out the great majority of corporations, but that doesn’t limit him. Here are four steps to develop a strong PVP: Set a clear target.
As you think about your own career strategy, think about Steve and his narrowly defined and distinctive PVP. 3 questions to ask yourself about a new job offer. The offer letter hits your email or your desk. Panic washes over you. You sit for a moment and hope that the grass will truly be greener on the other side of the fence and that the new job will more than deliver on all the things you want to get out of it. For many of us, deciding to leave an old job and moving on to a new one can be terrifying. Despite doing the homework on the company, many times you’re still walking into a lot of unknowns. While we’ve covered the topic of things to consider when looking for a new job, I wanted to break it down a bit more on the specific things to think about when deciding whether to accept the offer, begin negotiating or stick it out in your current position.
Let’s assume that if you’ve gone through the hoops of looking for a new job, applying and going on interviews, you’re not terribly happy where you currently work. For some people, accepting the offer is a no-brainer. 1. The new position you’ve just been offered is great. 2. 3. How to handle a gap in your job history. I left my last employment in November, 2010, due to health reasons. I am now healthy and ready to start work, but how do I answer when I’m asked why I haven’t been working for such a long time?
I left my job on very good terms. I had a great relationship with my supervisor and the boss, but due to a new company policy they are not allowed to give references to former employees. I do have several excellent reference letters from previous jobs. Friends and colleagues are telling me not to let potential employers know that I was ill, as they may not believe me when I say that I am now better. How would you suggest I answer this question? Most people have gaps in their résumé for various reasons, whether due to travel opportunities or layoffs or simply taking time to find a new job. It is important to answer the question directly, with little room for employers to probe for more information.
Eileen Dooley is a certified coach and lead consultant for Cam McRae Consulting in Calgary.
Job trends: Taking tech changes into your own hands. As bleak as the prospect of a long winter might be, at least you can be sure that it’s going to give way to spring. It’s a shame you can’t be as certain about an economic rebound, a resurgence in hiring or even whether your job or employer will be secure in the coming year. Yet there are changes and trends you can be confident will happen in the near future, and they can be used to design career strategies to weather even the most prolonged economic chill, according to technology trends consultant Daniel Burrus, author of Flash Foresight. (To read an excerpt from the book, click here.) “A career strategy based on uncertainty has high risk. “It has been never more important to ask what we can know for certain, and plan from there,” said Mr. Stay current or die Over the next five years, technology will transform how we sell, train, collaborate, and market products and services, he said. “To be a leader and a winner you need to be willing to lead a transformation.”
Take the long view Mr.
Professional Presence. Interviewing. Choose Your Boss Wisely - Priscilla Claman. By Priscilla Claman | 11:53 AM April 20, 2011 Most job-seekers aren’t just looking for the right work — they’re looking for the right manager, too. To a large extent a manager will control your assignments and your work environment, so it makes sense to try to learn more about her long before you’re hired. But in an hour-long interview with a hiring manager, you will be lucky to get fifteen minutes to ask your own questions. For this reason, as a job candidate you should not only be concerned with your answers to a hiring manager’s questions, and but also a potential manager’s answers to your questions. It was early in my career when I first used this technique. I was the interviewee, and let’s just say the hiring manager reputedly had a management style akin to that of a Mafia boss — ruthless, and obsessed with loyalty. “That would be Barbara.
I learned more about his management style in that answer than if I had asked him directly. Listen carefully during the interview. Is It Time for a New Job? - John Lees. By John Lees | 11:54 AM August 12, 2011 Jim, a communications specialist, is sitting opposite me stirring his second coffee. He has declining budgets, repetitive tasks, and an overbearing boss who micromanages his every move. He can’t remember the last time he had a great day at work. He’s shown me a clipping for a lower-paid job which he thinks he won’t get, and now he’s trying to find a new way to express what he’s been saying for the last half hour — that as much as he dislikes his current job, at least that’s the devil he knows.
If any of this sounds familiar, know that a lot of us kid ourselves that we make decisions about our careers. Working in tough times changes everything. In this extended downturn, how often have you heard people say, “It’s pretty bad, but it’s a place to ride out the storm”? But neither is fantasizing. Most of us would love every opportunity to be presented on a plate, every career decision to be obvious. Go or, stay — but do it for the right reasons. Five Subtle Ways to Find a New Job - Priscilla Claman. By Priscilla Claman | 2:43 PM August 25, 2011 Looking for a job can be discouraging and embarrassing, if not downright humiliating. You can be rejected without reason, asked questions you’d rather not answer, or be judged based on criteria you don’t understand.
Not to mention you’re putting your career — and even your sense of self — on the line. That may be why so many people delay putting themselves on the job market even when they know they should act. For example, I once mentored a customer service representative who knew he should leave his job. After two raise-less, promotion-less years, he found himself feeling undervalued and bored. He had plenty of excuses for delaying action: Why look for a new job when his last job-search experience was a nightmare? Of course, I’m not suggesting you jump ship every time you are bored at work.
Here are some suggestions that will allow you to work with your current work situation without committing to a job search: Be prepared. Why You Still Haven't Gotten a Job - Priscilla Claman. By Priscilla Claman | 2:11 PM September 28, 2011 They say, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.” So why do we repeat things that we know aren’t working? Take jobseekers who send out hundreds, sometimes thousands of resumes, and never get any results. In any other context this would merit a change in approach, but they just keep sending out more resumes.
Last year, I was visited by one of these chronic resume-senders. She had never noticed the spelling error, but undoubtedly the hiring managers on the receiving end of the resume had. Mortifying as this discovery was, Sheryl did the right thing. Are you getting 5 or 6 first interviews for every 100 reasonably-targeted resumes you send out? If you aren’t getting initial results from your resume, stop sending it out en masse. Are you getting one second interview for about every 8 first interviews? Have you been a finalist for more than 8 or 9 positions, and still not landed a job? Set Your Own Standards for Personal Success - Management Tip of the Day - September 30, 2011.